Eddie Hearn dismissed one of the judges’ scorecards from Terence Crawford’s win over Israil Madrimov last night.
Madrimov was defeated by unanimous decision, as ‘Bud’ became the new WBA super welterweight champion in Los Angeles.
The scores were 116-112, 115-113, 115-113 in the American’s favour, with the widest margin particularly annoying to Hearn, Madrimov’s promoter.
“It’s a waste of time,” said Hearn after the fight, and he also posted to X (formerly) Twitter) to register his unhappiness.
“It’s not a 116-112 fight. He’s coming into the fight as a champion but because he’s fighting Terence Crawford he doesn’t get a shake.
“All of the effective punches were coming from Israil Madrimov. Crawford had a good flurry in the last round.
“It was a super close fight I believe you have to come in and take that belt of the champion, Terence Crawford didn’t do that and I love him he is brilliant.
“But for me, he [Madrimov] deserves to be champion tonight. It was a fight that could have gone either way and then you hear the scorecards and it’s why do you bother kind of thing.
“You lose by four rounds on two of the scorecards, it wasn’t that kind of fight.
He added: “I was sitting in the corner, they were so quiet all fight. They knew: ‘The twelfth round, we need this’.
“They knew this fight was on a knife edge and you get absolutely zero respect from the judges because it is Terence Crawford.
“He’s an amazing fighter, it was a very close fight but as champion, he deserved more respect on those scorecards.
“That was a fight that could have gone either way and it feels like a waste of time when you lose 116-112, it’s like they are already filled out before.
“Everyone knows, His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] came up to me and said ‘Oh no, you’ve ruined our plans’
“And it was that kind of fight and you hear the scorecards and it’s a waste of time.”
