Trainer, commentator and fight analyst, Teddy Atlas, has slammed the boxing judges that oversaw one recent huge fight, after what was perceived to be a one-sided victory for the underdog was scored in favour of the other man.
Belfast’s Sean McComb travelled across the pond to take on WBO super-lightweight mandatory challenger Arnold Barboza Jr and went into the contest as a heavy underdog against the undefeated American on the Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia card.
However, it seemed as though McComb was more than up to the task, dominating the fight from the opening bell onwards and boxing his way to what was expected to be a comfortable decision win, that viewers scored as a 100-90 whitewash on BoxRec.
Yet, as we see so often in our sport, it was quite simply the wrong man who got his hand raised, and speaking to ProBoxTV, Atlas was livid.
“That was terrible. The only thing honest about this f****in’ sport is the fighters. The administrators of the sport are not honest, they’re not. Gus D’amato would say to me ‘Teddy, that kind of decision could be one of two things – either complete and utter incompetence or corruption’, and then he would say to me ‘Teddy – nobody could be that incompetent’.
“That was a corrupt decision, that was horrible. To rip apart that fighter, McComb, to rip it right out of his chest like some kind of kung fu movie – where you go in there and you rip their heart right out – to rip all of his hopes and all of his dreams right out of his chest, when he came over here to change his life [is horrible].
“These bums, they go and they go and rob that from that kid, he had earned it. That kid went in there and took a risk that these judges don’t take. How dare they do that?”
Barboza is now well poised to fight for Teofimo Lopez’s WBO title, meaning he will likely disregard McComb’s inevitable demands of a rematch.
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