Reality TV star Chase DeMoor fears he could face a year-long suspension from boxing after continuing to punch his knocked out opponent in his comeback fight.
DeMoor, a former college football player and star of Netflix's Too Hot To Handle, brutally stopped YouTuber Stevie Knight within a round of his second professional fight on Friday night in New Orleans. The heavyweight star had been mocked relentlessly for his farcical showing last time out against Josh Brueckner, and rebuilt himself as a fighter for five months afterwards.
He looked a changed man in the ring on the night, dropping Knight twice and landing another knockdown that wasn't scored before ultimately landing the finish. However, controversy ensued when after his rival hit the floor he continued to throw eight punches at his downed opponent leading to a DQ finish and his record moving to 0-2.
Now, DeMoor has told Mirror Fighting the commission in Louisiana are eyeing up a year's suspension for the novice fighter after his outburst. "I was told 'they're pushing for a year's ban, they want a 12-month suspension,' but we'll see how that goes," he said. Misfits Boxing are planning to suspend DeMoor 'until further notice' and will be fining him a percentage of his purse, a spokesperson told Mirror Fighting today.
"Obviously there's a lot of factors at play in that," the fighter added. "Off first initial look you see what you see but you also have to take into consideration experience, size of the ring, we're big bodies fighting in a small ring, the pace of him falling down and then where the referee is."
The referee's positioning, DeMoor argues, is the crux of the issue. As a sub-novice level professional who had been in the ring just twice prior; an exhibition against Cory Wharton and his loss to Brueckner, he believes more care should have been taken in stepping in knowing that an inexperienced fighter might continue to punch.
"If you watch the clip, he's counting while Stevie is on the ropes still," DeMoor contests. "He's not all the way down and the referee is behind us counting. What people don't understand is after there's already been two knockdowns, I'm a lot bigger than him, why is he not right in between us saying 'get off of him'?
"They do that in Deontay Wilder's fights, in every fight ever except this one and he's just watching and at first he doesn't even DQ it. He comes and separates us and then after talking to the corner he decides to do a DQ because I think at this point he realised how wrong he was.
"I'm not saying I'm not at fault. I'm 100 per cent at fault. But if you look at the punches, they weren't hard punches, I wasn't on the ground snapping his head back, it was more celebratory punches, I feel like. The ref 100 per cent should have been there and sent me to my neutral corner.
"I think his referee's licence should be reviewed because that is ridiculous, a very big safety concern and I'm not saying that what I did was right or wrong. But what I'm saying is that when I punched him and saw his eyes roll in the back of his head and his eyebrows lifting, I'll never forget that.
Should he be handed a lengthy suspension, DeMoor will continue to train in the sport and prepare for a massive comeback, which he argues could see him become a real problem in the ring. He had been eyeing up a bout with the winner of Minikon vs Jake 'The Viking', but after their bout ended in a draw it remains to be seen who he will face next.
"Obviously, if it is a 12-month ban that would be really unfortunate," he admits. "But you know me, I don't go quietly ever. Look what I did in five months. You give me 12 more months of boxing training I really might be fighting Tyson Fury... For me, the plan is I'm dropping down to 225lb so if I need to fight at 190lb I can but if I need to fight at heavyweight I can.
"And I'll continue to box, if I get banned for 12 months I'll box through the 12 months if that's just training every day and posting sparring footage, I'm not going to sit it out, 100 per cent no. If anything, if they don't have me ranked as a heavyweight contender now, they've lost their minds. Watch Misfits 6, who else had a nice knockout besides me and Walid Sharks?
"From promo standpoint, superstar standpoint, following - if you remove me from that last Misfits show what happens at that event? What happens at the press conference? People can say what they want about me but you remove me from that show and tell me how that whole venue would have went down."
DeMoor is keen for fans to understand why he was so animated on the night, later getting into a ringside altercation with Nate Diaz that spilled out into the streets. The former college football player had been mocked for his loss to Brueckner for months, and claims he saw red after landing the final shot.
"Look, we all saw the illegal punches and I've apologised openly online," he added. "But in my defence I was fighting demons. I saw everything on his way down, I saw every comment, every meme, for five months I dealt with that s*** and people can say what they want but as far as my character goes I might be 0-2 but that was an a**-beating that s***, his grandkids are going to be feeling.
"I can't even describe and I know people will listen to this and be like 'yeah, right' but nobody really understands what it's like when you're in that ring. First and foremost the referee being behind us when there were two previous knockdowns and the size difference between me and Stevie, the fact he was so far away, that's a completely separate thing.
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"He was falling down the ropes so slowly and I don't know what happened, Chase was not there any more, King Chase was out the building. It was just like, reading those comments and waking up every day and training for boxing when the whole world is telling you to hang the gloves up? Nobody understands what that feeling is like.
"I had the most viral clip in the world swinging and missing, and I really felt that in that moment. To Stevie, 100 per cent, he's a good dude. I like Stevie and he has a bright boxing future, good luck to anybody that boxes him because that dude has got a chin like I ain't ever seen before. He went flying across the ring and got back up.
"I'm sorry that I kept throwing those punches afterwards and I let the emotions get the best of me, that's part of boxing, too. Ring experience, understanding how to pace yourself, learning how to throw punches and learning how to knock somebody down and back off is also part of boxing, things you develop years at a time.
"I'm not the first person to throw a punch after the bell, I'm not going to be the last person to do it. It's a learning curve! I can only be so apologetic... I am truly sorry for it and it won't happen again, but at the same time I'm not going to be discredited for my 'loss' either."
