The California State Athletic Commission has assigned a Swedish judge to Andre Ward's fight against Mikkel Kessler, apparently clearing up a dispute over the neutrality of the officiating crew at Saturday's WBA super middleweight title bout.
Kessler's camp was unhappy this week about the assignment of two judges and a referee from California to the Super Six tournament bout in Oakland, Ward's hometown. The WBA might not have sanctioned the bout for Kessler's 168-pound title if the California commission hadn't addressed the fight's contract stipulations for neutral judges.
The commission replaced one of the California-based judges with Sweden's Mikael Hook. South Africa's Stanley Christodoulou and California's Steve Morrow will remain the other judges, and California-based Jack Reiss is still the referee.
Commission spokesman Russ Heimerich described the change as ``a compromise'' to address Kessler's concerns.
Ward promoter Dan Goossen wasn't entirely thrilled with the news, noting Hook was a judge in Kessler's last fight in his native Denmark. Goossen said the commission attempted to speak with the WBA for several months about the requirements for the fight's officials, but got no response.
Goossen also claimed the officials were assigned nearly two weeks ago, but the commission heard no complaints until the last two days from Wilfried Sauerland, Kessler's promoter.
Sauerland, who said Wednesday that the assignments were ``a really serious problem,'' didn't immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.
The contracts for the Super Six bouts require no more than one judge from each fighter's ``home territory,'' along with a judge and a referee from a ``neutral territory.''
The tournament's first two fights last month met those requirements. On Oct. 17, Arthur Abraham stopped Jermain Taylor in Germany, Abraham's adopted homeland; later that night, two non-British judges awarded a split decision to Carl Froch over Andre Dirrell in Froch's native Nottingham, England.
Kessler has been the WBA 168-pound champion for most of the past five years. He lost the belt to Wales' Joe Calzaghe in March 2007, but reclaimed it last year and made two title defenses before agreeing to meet Ward at Oracle Arena.
Ward is about to get his first major title shot after a deliberate five-year climb from the amateur ranks. He is the only American gold medal-winning boxer to come out of the past three Olympics.
