Mikaela Mayer victory marred by deplorable scoring
In her most recent tour of duty, Mikaela Mayer (16-0, 5 KO’s) won a hard fought gritty battle that was great deal of fun to watch. The win over Maiva “El Veneno” Hamadouche (22-2, 18 KO’s) also stood as a unification bout. After ten strenuous rounds, Mayer was able to add Hamadouche’s IBF strap to her own WBO super featherweight title. Even better, the two women were appearing in the main event of an ESPN televised card.
While there is no controversy in regards to who won the bout, the night was still sullied by another round of nauseating scorecards. Despite going neck and neck with El Veneno, and clearly losing the opening rounds, Mayer prevailed with scores of: 98-92, 99-91 and 100-90. The most shamefully egregious of all the tallies was the 100-90 ruling that judge Lisa Giampa submitted.
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Perhaps if a handful of sand soaked in hot sauce was flung into her eyes, this card would make more sense. Yet that was not the case. Max DeLuca’s tally of 99-91 was essentially just as criminal and blatantly revealed a naked bias toward the American fighter. To make matters even worse, Hamadouche originally won her title in 2016 and defended it six times. So to lose the belt in such a slimy and underhanded way has got to leave a foul taste in the French woman’s mouth.
LEGALLY BLIND
There is no secret that in boxing, hometown fighters are often the beneficiaries of hometown decisions. This scenario feels an awful lot like that. Therefore it follows suit that in the aftermath of the buzzkill scorecards that boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, of Matchroom Boxing, was questioned on the matter. More specifically, it was wondered if Hearn would be leery of allowing his foreign fighters to compete on American soil. Rather than taking any digs at any one, Hearn gave his accurate and somewhat political answer.
“It’s not about female or male, it’s just about boxing. Bad scoring is a global pandemic, not just over here. We certainly see it in Britain a lot. You know fighters come over and it’s almost like a scorecard is filled out before the fight is even finished! It really worries me that he can have a card of ten rounds to nil in a fight like that…but to give a champion that’s coming into a fighter’s back yard no credit for one round, or just to give her one round in that fight, is crazy!
“So I don’t think this is a problem with American scoring or Las Vegas scoring. And Bob Bennit, I had a few words with him. But ultimately we see bad score cards all too often and I just feel like judges have to be accountable for these decisions. I always feel like those judges should be called before you right now on ESPN. I’d love to speak to him and find out just how he scored that fight ten nil.”
Regrettably, what Hearn said is more likely the truth. Stomach-churning scorecards are not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. Yet, while we will continue to strive to remove these sour outcomes from the sport, there is no changing the insulting ruling that Maiva Hamadouche was saddled with tonight. Hopefully she will bounce back in dynamic fashion. At the same time, instead of earning the clean win, Mayer’s victory will forever be tainted by the bogus judges. Yet, these are just some of the unpleasant realities that we’ve come to accept in this grand but heartbreaking sport.
By: Bakari Simpson
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