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One of the two California judges initially chosen to work Saturday night's 168-pound bout between Denmark's WBA king Mikkel Kessler and challenger Andre Ward has been replaced with a Swedish official, quelling a controversy that had threatened the fight's championship status.Kessler's promoter, Wilfried Sauerland, said on Wednesday that the WBA had threatened not to sanction Kessler-Ward as a super middleweight title matchup because the referee, Jack Riesse, and at least two of the three judges assigned were from California.
That was in violation of the rules regarding the matchup -- part of Showtime's Super Six Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic -- wherein, at least two judges and the referee were to be from neutral territories, in accordance with contracts signed by each of the tournament's six fighters regarding the nationalities of the officials.
But Ward's promoter, Dan Goossen, said the commission has removed one California judge in favor of Sweden's Mikael Hook, who will work the fight along with South Africa's Stanley Christodoulou and California's Steve Morrow.
Riesse remains in place for Kessler-Ward, which will take place at Oracle Arena in Ward's hometown of Oakland.
"The key is that all that I care about is that, whoever wins the fight, if it goes to a decision, that man gets the decision. I'm willing to accept it. I'm not going to do what Sauerland did and threaten any pullouts or anything like that," said Goossen.
"If Ward is winning and deserves the decision, I expect him to get the decision," said Goossen. "If Ward doesn't do enough to win, and Kessler should be the winner, I expect Kessler to get the decision. It's not right for the fighters to have judges affect the outcome of the fights."
Goossen said that Hook and Christodoulou were assigned to Kessler's last victory, a fourth-round knockout of Gusmyr Perdomo on Sept. 12 in Herning, Denmark. Both officials had Kessler ahead, 29-27, at the time of the stoppage.
"If anyone could complain, it would be me, because Christodoulou and Hook worked Kessler's last fight. But I'm willing to live with it," said Goossen. "It's not a matter of being happy or unhappy, it's a matter of me being willing to let it go as it is with the officials."
Kessler is 42-1 with 30 knockouts coming into the bout with Ward (20-0, 13 KOs), a 2004 Olympic gold medalist.
"Ward is unbeaten and very strong, but his previous accomplishments, including the Olympic gold medal, will not help him against Mikkel Kessler," said Sauerland.
"I have promoted five Olympic gold medal winners, but that does not mean that you become a world champion," said Sauerland. "So Andre can try ... to leave the ring as the winner. He is a strong fighter but he has never been in the ring with someone of Mikkel´s class."
