JUDGING ANGER IS OVERBLOWN.

Byline: MICHAEL ROSENTHAL Boxing

OK, everyone settle down.

The decision that gave Shane Mosley a narrow victory over Oscar De La Hoya on Sept. 13 in Las Vegas has caused an unusually dramatic uproar, even by boxing's standards.

The vast majority of fans seem to believe that the judges stole a clear victory from De La Hoya.

So passionate are they about their position that I was called a moron, a coward and much worse by dozens of enraged e-mailers and callers the past week for not taking issue with the decision this past Monday.

This even though I scored the fight 115-113 for De La Hoya, a total I strongly stand by.

Well, allow two figures at the center of the storm - HBO broadcasters Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant - to help me with this one: They, too, believe it was a reasonably close fight and there is no evidence whatsoever the judges were crooked.

It was, as Lampley and Merchant said, a simple difference of opinion.

``The whole thing seems like a fire storm without a real fire,'' Merchant said.

Lampley and Merchant, along with colleagues George Foreman and Harold Lederman, made it clear during the broadcast that they believed De La Hoya had won the fight and they stand by that assessment after reviewing the tape.

That fact has become a rallying point for many of those who have cried foul. ``How can all four of them be wrong,'' they ask.

However, neither Lampley nor Merchant believes the 115-113, 115-113, 115-113 decision was out of line, or that foul play was involved.

``A lot of people whose opinion I respect thought Mosley won the fight,'' Merchant said. ``And certainly the range of disagreement was well within an honest difference of opinion.

``No, I don't think the decision was outrageous.''

Also, watching the fight in person and on television are different experiences and could help explain the disparity of opinion among ringside writers (the majority of whom favored Mosley) and television viewers (who were partial to De La Hoya).

Even your seat location within the arena can provide contrasting perspectives.

``Somebody I know, somebody who had access to tapes of the fight from two different camera angles, told me he scored five rounds differently watching from the different angles,'' Merchant said. ``He still had the fight very close in both cases, though.

``And the judges scored it the same but agreed on only six rounds. That's why they're placed on different sides of the ring, so they'll get a full picture of what's happening.''

Some have suggested that the commentators might've influenced viewers by suggesting throughout the fight that De La Hoya was winning.

Merchant said he can accept what seems to be a logical notion, at least to some extent, but Lampley rejects it.

``I went to graduate school in mass communications,'' Lampley said. ``If there's one central lesson to come out of grad school, it's that the notion the media inoculates (public opinion) is false. If an editorialist offers his opinion on a subject of high importance, the audience reaction is likely to be 50-50.

``I don't doubt for a second that as we're calling the fight that night, 50 percent of the audience is thinking, `These guys are idiots.' ''

Or, as Merchant put it: ``If they agree with us, they're sages. If they don't, we're dunces.''

Finally, neither commentator thought highly of the reactions of De La Hoya and his promoter, Bob Arum.

An emotional De La Hoya said immediately after the fight that he would file a complaint over the decision, which Lampley suggested only fed into the budding controversy by polarizing those who thought Mosley won.

And Arum went further, suggesting improprieties among the judges before backing off.

Naturally, fans upset over the decision and fueled by comments made by De La Hoya and Arum assumed the worst: Just another example of corruption in boxing. Several of the e-mailers and callers said they'd never buy a pay-per-view fight again.

That's an overreaction. Yes, there are problems in boxing, but there were no problems in this case.

``It's ludicrous,'' Lampley said. ``If you open this up, you'll have to look at 100 other fights. Any of us can see this was not an overwhelmingly easy fight to score. It had nuance, it required thought to figure out who you think won the fight.

``People pointed to the fact all three judges had the same score. But they disagreed on who won each round. The same scores were a coincidence, not something to suggest something weird was going on.''

Merchant sees it the same way.

``The argument can be made that the result of this fight shows the integrity of boxing,'' he said. ``Three judges scored a close fight against the popular star who brought the crowd. ... (Arum just) had a hysterical reaction.''

And he wasn't alone.

--More Arum: Arum lashed out at the judges after the fight but wasn't so critical of them beforehand.

In a pre-fight interview on 1150-AM radio, as quoted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Arum said, ``I think everyone is satisfied with the officials.''

--Punch stats: Lampley and Merchant defended CompuBox punch statistics as a valuable tool for boxing fans but emphasized that they're not conclusive.

De La Hoya outlanded Mosley, according to CompuBox, another reason many fans were upset.

``If there's one lesson I have learned from this entire affair, it's that I should probably say more frequently that (punch stats) don't measure the impact of punches,'' Lampley said. ``... With limitations, (the stats) are remarkably accurate based on my observations.

``... The perfect example is Lennox Lewis. If he throws 30 jabs a round, he's untouchable. If he throws below 20, he's an average fighter. I've seen it proved out over and over again.''

Merchant brought up an even more-interesting example.

``As we explain often, punch stats are supposed to show the quantity of punches, not the quality of punches,'' he said. ``Ninety or 95 percent or more of the time, the quantity of punches tracks the winner of the fight. In this case, it didn't.

``I would point out that Pernell Whitaker threw and landed more punches than De La Hoya (in their 1997 fight, won by De La Hoya). No one complained at that time.''

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- Michael Rosenthal