‘That’s screwed up’ – Ring announcer makes major blunder for world title fight result leaving boxer devastated
The ring announcer made a huge mistake when reading out the scores for Nina Hughes and Cherneka Johnson's WBA bantamweight world title fight.
Both women duked it out in a competitive back-and-forth affair over ten rounds on the Vasyl Lomachenko vs George Kambosos undercard on Saturday night.
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In the immediate aftermath, the champion - Hughes - was initially announced as the winner.
But then in a dramatic turn of events, the ring announcer reversed the call and declared Johnson the victor via split decision with scores of 95-95, 96-94, 98-92 in her favour.
Hughes was understandably furious. "I just don't get it," she said.
"How can they announce me the winner and then change the scores?
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"I dominated early, I thought she won a few of the later rounds but I felt I won it comfortably.
"How can you announce the winner and then change the scores?"
Promoter Lou DiBella then confirmed that there was a rematch clause in their contracts meaning the two women will be able to run it back at a later date.
He said: "I think an announcement that's wrong shouldn't happen. It was a very close fight.
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"But I'm sort of shocked, it's unfair to have to suffer through that. To think you've won it and then celebrate, and have a decision to turn it over. That's screwed up.
The winner, Johnson, added: "I thought I had won the fight. And then when they announced Nina [had won] I just had to accept it.
"Like, I'm not the judge. And I'm glad that they figured out the right decision. I thought I controlled the centre and landed the cleaner shots.
"I don't know because I'm not the judges but I feel like I won that fight."
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