Boxing judge Miller regarded among the best

By Greg Gulas

BOARDMAN — He logs nearly 40,000 air miles a year and at age 48 has already judged 297 professional and more than 3,600 amateur bouts.

On Saturday, Tom Miller will be in Houston to serve as a judge for his 58th championship bout; the WBA featherweight title between defending champion Chris John of Indonesia and Rocky Juarez of Texas.

Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Blue Wolf Banquet Center, Miller, of Mineral Ridge, shared valuable insight in regards to a judges’ scoring of a fight while offering a candid opinion about Saturday’s middleweight title defense at the Chevy Centre between local champion Kelly Pavlik and challenger Marco Antonio Rubio.

“To me, it looked like an easy workout for Kelly. He worked the whole body, both up and down and listened to trainer Jack Loew when he needed settling down.

“He connected when he needed to connect and in the seventh and eighth rounds, he put his power and punch together so that there was no question that by the end of the ninth round that would be the end of the fight.

“If I had to give Kelly a grade, it would be an A-minus for his title defense,” Miller said.

Miller’s travels have taken him to 15 countries where he enjoys status as one of the sport’s best and most requested judges.

A boxing judge is considered average if he enjoys a 75-80 percent success ratio. Miller’s 98 percent success ratio places him near the top of that list.

He said professional fights are much easier to judge.

“The pros go by the 10-point ‘Must Scoring System’ while on the amateur level, points three times that number can often be accumulated for a round,” he said.

Five judges, not three, are used at the amateur level while in the Olympics, a computerized scoring system is in place as well.

“Three of the five judges have to simultaneously press their clickers within one second of a landed punch in order to score a point.

“Often times the computer system will fail so the clickers continue to be used with the jury deciding the scoring for the round.

“The jury is strategically placed between two of the judges and is ready on a moment’s notice when called upon,” Miller said.

Miller will also judge two more title fights (his 59th and 60th assignments) on March 14 in England — the vacant WBO cruiserweight crown between the UK’s Enzo Maccarinelli and Ola Afolabi of the United States, and the WBO junior lightweight title fight between champion Nicky Cook of England and Roman Martinez of Puerto Rico.

Next week, newly appointed Ohio senator Joe Schiavoni, one of the advisors to Kelly Pavlik, will be the guest speaker.