“That’s a bold statement and accusation that I don’t take lightly” says Jake Paul, as he accuses Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom of paying off a boxing judge.
Hearn and Paul worked in partnership to stage Katie Taylor’s undisputed title defence against Amanda Serrano, who is a part of the American’s MVP stable.
Glenn Feldman has been scoring boxing bouts since 1992. Most recently though, he’s been one of three judges at both the Katie Taylor – Amanda Serrano fight and the Oleksandr Usyk – Anthony Joshua rematch. It’s these two fights that Paul alleges corruption.
In an interview with IFL TV, the YouTuber turned boxer made his claims – all stemming from his fighter’s loss to Katie Taylor in a co-promoted and historic event at Madison Square Garden.
“I still think Amanda Serrano won the fight, and I think a lot of people do as well. You see this judge, Glenn Feldman, who had the biggest gap between Serrano and Taylor. Pretty much everyone thought it was a draw or Amanda won. Even Katie’s coach came up to me before they announced it in the ring like ‘that was a draw.’ But there’s the judge Glenn Feldman who scored it such a big gap for Taylor. Gave rounds that Amanda clearly won to Taylor.”
“Then this judge, Glenn Feldman, shows up in Saudi and scores Anthony Joshua to win the fight when everyone watched the fight – it’s not a split decision, Usyk had a runaway victory, clearly won the fight and this judge Glenn Feldman gives it to Anthony Joshua. It’s like a repeated crime here. I’m going to call it out in boxing because it’s bulls**t.”
“Clearly this guy [Feldman] is getting paid money by Matchroom Boxing – and that’s a bold statement and accusation that I don’t take lightly.”
“It’s just blatantly obvious and they’re not even trying to hide it … You would think they’d get a different judge to bring to Saudi Arabia, especially cause he’s from the US – like why all of a sudden does he appear in Saudi?”
“You would think they’d get a different judge to try and hide the corruption they’re bringing to this sport but it’s just so blatantly obvious.”
Feldman scored the Taylor – Serrano bout 97-93 in favour of the Irish fighter. In Saudi Arabia more recently, he has Joshua up 115-113 at the final bell.
As per the Association of Boxing Commissions website, judges for professionally sanctioned fights are chosen from a list of approved officials by the commission of the area in which the fight is taking place.
Disagreements and upset surrounding scorecards is all too common in boxing, however rarely do they result in such a stark and targeted accusation.
Despite Paul’s vigour, the shocking claims are based on opinion with no evidence whatsoever provided to substantiate.