WBA/IBF unified super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (9-0, 7 KOs) scored a questionable fifth round TKO over former IBF champion Ryosuke Iwasa (27-4, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Humo Arena in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Akhmadaliev was progressively breaking down Iwasa when referee Yury Koptsev inexplicably jumped in for a very premature stoppage. The durable Iwasa still had plenty of fight left. Time was 1:30.
What was that all about?
Awful ref. Very premature stoppage. Left bad taste to otherwise fine card.
Very very bad stopage.
I am sick and tired of referees and judges ruining boxing matches and escaping with no sanction. Boxing needs to unite and sort this out.
They’ve been suspending judges a lot more recently for inexcusable scorecards. I’m not sure what’s happening after the suspensions but there seems to be so hope that these clown judges are getting punished.
It needs to happen more with refs but it wont. Commissions have been pushing for more quick stoppages recently and it only got worse after Patrick Day died. Even the commentators make excuses for the stoppages.
Sadly that won’t change. But hopefully we at least continue to see more judges facing consequences going forward.
All that said this was an EXTRA bad stoppage. But I don’t even think it’s anything more than the ref being trained to do this. I’ve been seeing a lot of amateur refs coming up and calling pro fights and stopping fights as if they were still in the amateurs. But I’m sure they are extra quick to stop the fight in favor of the “right” guy.
It sucks for the fans but even more for the fighters. Shit like this costs you a lot of money and ruins what limited chances some guys get.
This was far from the worst stoppage. If a fighter is outclassed and isnt showing the ability or power to turn things around why not save the guy? It was an uncompetitive fight. The last couple of rounds, Iwasa was getting knocked around the ring and I believe we all was just waiting for the big KO shot to put Iwasa out of his misery. The guy was outmatched, out skilled, and outgunned by a special fighter in Akhmadaliev.
I dont agree this match was ruined unless the purpose was to see the guy stretched on the canvass.
Let not gloss over Akhmadaliev has the ability, style, looks and attitude to become a huge star and make big money in the lower weight divisions. Prob havent seen this mix since Prince Naz
Ref probably REALLY had to use the restroom.
The standing 8-count used to be good in giving a ref time to better access a boxer’s condition and call a fight off or not.
The worst referee job on this card had to land on the fight with the most at stake… Sucked. Good to watch all the up and coming prospects but Iwasa got cheated here. It’s sick the ref mistook high volume punching for dominance. Akmadaliev was winning but it was a good back and forth.
As far as the not so good refs the whole night, this was the worst.
The referee should automatically stop the fight, he should first counted Mr Iwasa maybe the normal counting up to 8 counts, Mr Iwasa was totally surprised by the decision of the referee very clear biased decision. Maybe he let the fight continue, better have a rematch for the matter to settle negative comments