Eddie Hearn calls for Terry O'Connor to be removed as a judge following 'disgrace' in...

[ASFN Admin]

Eddie Hearn has called for Terry O'Connor to be "immediately removed" from the Boxing Board of Control judging panel after footage appeared to show the official on his phone during Lewis Ritson's bout with Miguel Vázquez on Saturday night. Ritson was awarded a controversial split-decision points win over Vázquez and O'Connor scored the contest 117-111 in favour of the British fighter, meaning that he awarded him nine of the rounds. The two other judges respectively scored the bout 116-113 to Vazquez, the former world champion, and 115-113 to Ritson. I scored it 115-113 to the Mexican Vasquez, who was busier throughout the entire 12 rounds. Pictures showed O'Connor looking at his phone during the eighth round. Hearn later labelled his behaviour "a disgrace" and even said that he thought Ritson had lost the contest. Hearn, the promoter of the event, wrote on his Twitter account: "If that's a phone (and I presume it is) then then BBBofC should immediately remove him." Mauricio Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council, said it was "extremely troubling to any person involved in boxing" and the American promoter Lou DiBella added: "I guess you don't have to watch the fight if you already made up your mind before it started. Unfortunately … it's just boxing." Hearn said: "117-111 to Ritson was a disgrace of a [judging] card. And it's terrible for the sport. People have got to be accountable for bad decisions. If you're in a job and you don't perform well, then you've got to face the consequences.' The board's Robert Smith has declared that it will be launching an investigation into the performance of O’Connor. Smith said: "This has to be looked at and investigated and it will be. I am so frustrated that this seems to have happened. After all the hard work we do behind the scenes we have something like this emerging. Personally, I am so disappointed. I can’t say anything more on it at this point." Elsewhere, widely regarded No1 pound-for-pound fighter Vasyl Lomachenko suffered a shock unanimous points defeat and lost the undisputed lightweight crown to Teofimo Lopez behind closed doors in Las Vegas. Lopez was awarded the bout by wide margins: Tim Cheatham scored it 116-112, Julie Lederman 119-109 and Steve Weisfeld 117-111. Brooklyn's Lopez, the 3-1 underdog going into the contest, utterly dominated the first six rounds with clever movement, timing and aggressiveness. Lomachenko, unusually sluggish getting off his punches, came back impressively in the second half of the contest, but it was too little, too late, as the 23-year-old - the younger man by nine years - battled back to claim the final round. I scored it eight rounds to four to Lopez, 116-112. The Ukrainian, a double Olympic champion from the Beijing and London Games, suffered his first defeat after a six-year, 14-fight winning streak, and strongly disagreed with the decision. “I think in the first half of the fight, he [Lopez] got more rounds than I did. But then in the second half of the fight, I took it over and I was much better. But I need to go home to review the fight, to see it. I can’t comment much now about it. But I’m definitely not agreeing with the scorecards.” Bob Arum, the fight's promoter, was also unhappy with the scoring of Lederman. "Lopez won, 7-5 is the way I scored it. I can see 8-4, that’s a possibility. But you can’t score it 11 rounds to 1 and say you watched the fight. The ninth, the 10th and 11th weren’t close. I would advise any fighter that I have to ask for the commission not to appoint Julie Lederman," said Arum. Arum also confirmed that the title fight between Sheffield's Kell Brook, the former IBF welterweight champion who challenges Terence Crawford for the WBO welterweight title scheduled for Nov 14 will be free-to-air in the USA. A UK broadcaster for the fight has yet to be confirmed.

Continue reading...