A judge in Anthony Joshua's recent defeat by Oleksandr Usyk has been told by veteran promoter Frank Warren he should "never work again" after scoring a "disgraceful" 115-113 card in favour of the Brit.
It appeared to most watching the bout either in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia or at home on pay-per-view that Usyk had clearly taken the fight when his 12-round bout with Joshua went the distance on Saturday night. But judge Glenn Feldman disagreed with the general sentiment and ended up leaving the bout as a split decision with a very controversial scorecard in favour of Joshua.
Warren is aghast with the result and has called for Feldman to stop judging in the sport. There have been a number of controversial calls recently and luckily for Usyk, the score didn't end up leaving him without the belts after a bout where there were no more rematch clauses.
"I thought the judge that scored him five up going into the seventh round should not be allowed to judge fights again," Warren - who promotes WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury - told iFL TV. "It's disgraceful that kind of thing and I don't understand how some of the media made him win, there's a couple of guys that thought he won the fight, I don't know what planet they were on.
"I was really disappointed because every time it seems like in fights now we get these controversial decisions and they shouldn't be controversial. There is no consequence, I bang on about this, somebody having a poor day judging a fight. You're a football referee, you do this, you get demoted and go down a level.
"That's the same thing, what happens though because of connections or whatever it is with whoever the governing body is they get another big fight. I don't think it's right and they should be held accountable."
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Feldman was confronted after the fight by iD Boxing, who questioned his reasoning for the scorecard, to which the judge replied: "Just the way I did. I can't explain. You would have to talk to my supervisor." He was quickly cut off by his supervisor who, tried to explain the judge's decision.
"I saw it as a very close fight and you have to understand boxing is scored round-by-round and they were razor close and it depends on your perspective," he said. "I think [it was] a close fight and they scored it as they saw it. I think it was smart of Anthony to come out and try to rough-up Usyk. I think there was good training and a good strategy and Usyk was able to have a little more energy in the final three rounds.
"Round by round, I think it was very close. I think if you look at the punch stats after the fight you will see that. I was happy with how all three judges scored the fight. I think it was a close fight and it is a type of fight [that] is just based on which side of the ring you sit at and that is why we have them [the judges] in different positions. I don't think anyone can say it was an overwhelming victory."
