A disturbing screen capture has emerged showing boxing judge Terry O’Connor appearing to be playing with his smartphone rather than concentrating on the fight he was supposed to be scoring. O’Connor was judging the Lewis Ritson against Miguel “Titere” Vazquez fight and turned in an absurd 117-111 card in favor of house fighter Ritson in a bout most believe Vazquez won handily.
The image has brought swift condemnation from the boxing world.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman: This image is extremely troubling to any person involved in boxing.
Promoter Eddie Hearn: If that’s a phone (and I presume it is) then the BBBofC should immediately remove him.
Promoter Lou DiBella: I’ve never seen that before! Maybe he wasn’t watching! Vasquez should have won. Gotta love judging in the fight game!
UK Boxing Judge Terry O’Connor on his CELL PHONE in the middle of a round tonight on DAZN. He scored the bout 117-111 Ritson over Vasquez, a score that has been widely criticized following the result. #BOXING pic.twitter.com/MS2yW4UC7t
— Fight Ghost (@Fight_Ghost) October 17, 2020
Wow
I stop judging fights 8 years ago and at that time in my country the cellphones were not allowed on the table or in our pocket. They were in the locker room.. A SHAME !!
Mobile phones and social media, changing behaviours daily
This is nothing new when it comes to Oconnor, he has been doing this for years in bouts with British fighters. I strongly believe he is on the take. Hearn needs to shut up, this is about the 5th fight for the year, where visiting fighters has been rob on his cards.
It’s game over man! Shut the door on your way out Terry.
Pathetic…unprofessional & disrespect to the men who are trying to earn a living in this brutal yet beautiful sport
He needs to be permanently removed. There are hundreds of great judges that love the sport who are waiting for an opportunity to serve boxing in any capacity.
The scorecard should be removed immediately. Perhaps a neutral panel should review the fight and score it accordingly.
Judges are just as bad as fight broadcasters and their blind calling for their house fighters.
Our sport needs an enema.
That’s a great statement; i quit judging/refeering because i wasn’t improving fast enough because crooked ones are keeping their jobs by being.. crooked ones ! The ones who are too fair are staying on the bottom !!
Might also be the mask he’s wearing, which reduces brain oxygen levels.
In most every job, you can and will get in trouble for playing on your phone on the job.
And this is why the UFC and the likes are taking over. Used to be the sweet science, now is the sour one…judges should be legally liable for their decisions.
UFC is taking over cause the scriptwriters and storyline writers have moved over from the WWE. Every fighter is going to take the other fighters “soul”. There is always “bad blood” or the fighter chasing “redemption”.
Look at Coby Covington – his script writer is from the KKK and he’s celebrated. Jon Jones is one of the most horrible humans walking the earth and McGregor is a car crash (no pun intended jones) waiting to happen. Thats why its taking over – car crash garbage reality TV for frat boyz.
How many times have you seen a fight where the unbeaten prospect wins something like 40-36, 60-54, 100-90, etc against the journeyman with a bad record, and the scorecards don’t match what you saw? They might as well fill out the scorecard ahead of time and play on their smartphones.
Definitely makes you wonder what the hell the judges were watching when not even one rd is given to the blue corner when in more then 90% of fights the red corner gives away the first couple rds
Show him the door… And don’t let him back in.