Judge Terry O’Connor to appear before British Boxing Board of Control after appearing to be caught on his phone while scoring Lewis Ritson’s controversial win over Miguel Vazquez
- Judge Terry O’Connor is to appear before the Boxing Board of Control
- He was caught on his phone while scoring Lewis Ritson and Miguel Vazquez
- O’Connor enraged commentators and viewers by scoring in favour of Ritson
Terry O’Connor is being called to appear before the Boxing Board of Control stewards after apparently being caught looking down at his mobile phone while judging Saturday night’s fight between Lewis Ritson and Miguel Vazquez.
O’Connor enraged commentators and TV viewers by scoring the fight 117-111 in favour of Ritson, although the Mexican veteran appeared to have cruised to a comfortable victory.
Board general secretary Robert Smith is seeking a date for the hearing after studying photographs of O’Connor at ringside.
Terry O’Connor was pictured on his phone during the Lewis Ritson and Miguel Vazquez fight
The British judge O’Connor scored the contest 117-111 in favour of Ritson on Saturday night
Michael Alexander compounded the scandalous split decision by voting 115-113 for Ritson. Only Marcus McDonnell gave the fight to Vazquez, albeit by an ungenerous 116-113 in the context of an overwhelming performance by the Mexican.
Sky analyst Matthew Macklin and myself scored only two rounds for Ritson, who was honest enough to admit that he is still well short of ever challenging for a world light-welterweight title.
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn called for the judge to be sacked after the fight.
Eddie Hearn took to Twitter to vent his frustration at O’Connor and his scoring decision
Hearn took to Twitter to express his frustration, saying: ‘If that’s a phone (and I presume it is) then then BBBofC should immediately remove him.’
Speaking to iFLTV, Hearn said the decision was a ‘disgrace’ and said that the judges must be ‘accountable for bad decisions’.
He said: ‘117-111 to Ritson was a disgrace of a card. And it’s terrible for the sport.
‘People have gotta be accountable for bad decisions. If you’re in a job and you don’t perform well, then you’ve gotta face the consequences.’
Fellow-promoter Lou DiBella added: ‘I guess you don’t have to watch the fight if you already made up your mind before it started. Unfortunately… it’s just boxing.’
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman also shared his thoughts on the situation, calling it ‘extremely troubling to any person involved in boxing.’
While Boxing trainer and manager Dave Coldwell took to Twitter to call out O’Connor, saying: ‘I’ve always said judges should be asked to explain how they come to their decision when it’s controversial & seemingly wide of the mark. Not sure swiping left counts as a good reason for screwing fighters careers over though?’
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