INTERVIEW WITH REFEREE BRUCE MCTAVISH
by TED LERNER
(Angeles City, Philippines)–Bruce McTavish has been a familiar face to boxing fans around Asia for nearly four decades. The slim, lanky New Zealander usually towers over the boxers whose fights he officiates, in more ways than one. Besides the obvious height difference, McTavish has a commanding presence in the ring. He is not a man who likes to utter the catchy slogan into the announcer’s mic after giving the instructions. In fact McTavish can never be heard even giving instructions to the fighters after the introductions.
“I always give the fighters their instructions in the dressing room,” McTavish likes to say. “There’s no need to make a show.” It is a no-nonsense attitude that has made McTavish one of the most widely respected boxing referees not only in Asia, but around the world.
Born and raised in New Zealand, McTavish first came to his adopted home in the Philippines in the early 1970’s. He eventually married into a prominent family in the province of Pampanga north of Manila, and together he and wife Carmen had two daughters.
McTavish had played professional rugby in New Zealand and had also boxed. Thus his entry into refereeing for the sweet science came naturally when he came to the Philippines. Since then he has been a mainstay in the local, regional and wider international scene. Refereeing has brought him around the world to the some of the most unusual locales, such as Siberia, North Korea, Vienna, Austria, and inside a women’s prison in Thailand.
Having established a reputation as fair and honest, McTavish remains very much in demand in boxing circles. For the past seven years he has taught the referees seminar at the annual convention of the WBC. In the ring, the young looking and fit 68 year old continues to be as active today as he has been for the past 35 years. When I caught up with Bruce a few months back in his home town of Angeles City, Philippines, he had just returned from refereeing two fights in Japan. He was set to referee a WBC International title fight in Manila a week later.
In this three part interview, McTavish discusses a wide range of topics, including his favorite Philippine fighters, Manny Pacquiao, the proliferation of alphabet belts, his career highlights and low lights, and the WBC, of which he has been a member for nearly two decades.
TL: You just got back from Japan. You were the referee for the OPBF Bantamweight championship and the WBC super bantamweight championship. Tell us about that.
BM: The OPBF fight was in Hiroshima which is quite an historical place. I saw ground zero before the fight, then ground zero after the fight. Then Yokohama for the WBC super bantamweight championship.
TL: Let’s talk about that WBC super bantamweight championship. The fight was Yoshiaki Nashioka defending his title against Genaro Garcia. Nashioka won by TKO in the 8th round. You were telling me beforehand that your shirt got so bloody that you had to send it to the cleaners. Sounds like it was a great one.
BM: It was. In fact it was the matador versus the bull. It was the Japanese’ first defense of his world title, he’s a stylish boxer, south paw, great left hand. And the bull was Garcia who didn’t matter how much he got hit he kept coming forward. So it was a tough fight to referee because a lot of head butting, a lot of throwing on the ground, a lot of work because the heart, the ‘corazon’ of the Mexican was unbelievable. I wanted to stop it a couple of times but it was hard to because he just kept coming on, he got knocked down twice and got up like nothing had happened.
TL: Tell me about boxing in Japan. It’s hard to get news out of Japan. You’ve been there many times. Is boxing on the rise in Japan, or on the downswing?
BM: A lot of people don’t realize that Japan only recognizes the WBA and the WBC. As of the 30th of December they had 7 world champions. Now they only have five. So in a week they lost two. Thank God mine wasn’t one of them. If mine had been one, it would’ve meant they would’ve lost three world titles in one week. They would’ve gone from 7 down to 4. But as it is they’ve gone from 7 down to 5. They lost two WBA titles within a week.
TL: Are they drawing good live crowds and are they getting good audiences on television?
BM: Television is gangbusters. But it really hurt them that the one in Hiroshima, the fight only lasted two rounds. So they had an hour program that only lasted four minutes and that really hurt them there. And they hadn’t had a fight there in 30 years. And the champion was from there and it was a disappointment for the crowd. So it might be another 30 years before they have another fight.
TL: Fighters often like to go to Japan because the money, especially in the lower weights, has always been better. Is Japan still a place for the lower weight guys to go and earn a good pay day and will it continue to be that way?
BM: Oh definitely because Thailand is really going through tough financial times, like all of Asia including Japan. But Japan would still be the strongest economically and they can afford to pay a lot more than the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea and Thailand. It is the place. In fact 80% of the OPBF fights are held in Japan.
TL: When you’re refereeing in front of a partisan crowd, tell us about the pressure of being a non-partisan, even keeled referee. How hard is it for you to maintain neutrality when you know there are people who will boo you or throw things at you when you make a decision that goes against their fighter?
BM: To be quite frank about that issue, I’m lucky that I have an athletic background. I always get a little bit nervous before any event, whether it was basketball, rugby union, track and field, boxing, it doesn’t matter, it was the same result. I’m fortunate being a professional in sports, that when the bell rings or the whistle blows, I block everything out just instinctively, and so it doesn’t bother me at all. So I’m very fortunate that way.
TL: Let’s go back to the beginning of your career. You’ve been a referee for 35 years. How did you get involved in boxing as a referee?
BM: A humorous comment to that is that I got sick of getting hit as a fighter. The main reason is that I was training a lot of people when I arrived here in the Philippines. And I had refereed before. Jun Sareal is the one that discovered me, if that’s the correct phrase to use, for an OPBF fight in Manila. And that rekindled my interest and from that day on I’ve been a referee.
TL: Who was your greatest influence back then? Who helped you along and how did you learn how to be a referee?
BM: Being an ex-fighter it was an easy transition. My mentors were Arthur Mercante from New York. He’s probably one of the greatest referees the world’s ever had. In this area the man who gave me the most motivation, who’s also a hall-of-famer like Arthur Mercante, is Papa Sareal. He was my guru and he helped me a lot just by a lot of criticisms thrown at me, and he helped me through the hard times. And in those days it was hard, this was a tough sport in this country. You didn’t get many kudos, you got a lot of insults. And Papa Sareal always stuck with me.
TL: What was the sport like back in the 1970’s. That was when the Philippines was coming off the Flash Elorde era. What is the difference between the sport back then and the sport now in the Philippines.
BM: Actually the sport then was more dynamic than it is now. Without Manny Pacquiao boxing would be just about history in the Philippines. When I say history I mean just about forgotten. In those days it was more exciting, there were probably even more fights believe it or not. Very little money but a lot of action. And a lot of fights were held in cockpit arenas. In fact Angeles City was like Cebu is today, it was the Mecca of boxing. A lot of sprained ankles on the canvas inside the cockpit that’s got about two inches rise on it and sewn and been repaired a million times. I had a gun pulled on me and stuck in my head in the ring. So they were exciting times.
TL: Tell me about the gun incident. What was that all about?
BM: The opponent went down about six times. I should have stopped it earlier. But the guy kept getting up about one or two. So about the fourth round after the sixth knockdown I stopped the fight and his corner man jumped in the ring, pulled out a 45, put it to my head, said he was going to kill me because he lost a lot of money. I said ‘what are you talking about?’ He said that’s his fighters tactics, he goes down early in the fight and he comes back strong. So I said to him, ‘I wish you had told me before the fight and I wouldn’t have stopped it. Next time I’ll let him go.’ He said “you’re very lucky” and he put it away. And I was very lucky.
To be continued…..
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