Mykal Fox Deserved Better Saturday Night

“The Professor” Mykal Fox deserved better than what he got, and it being chalked up as a “controversial unanimous decision loss” Saturday night from The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Fox was on Fox Sports in the Premier Boxing Champions co-main event taking on short notice Venezuelan Olympian and unbeaten welterweight Gabriel Maestre. And, Fox made the most of it, outboxing him in what should have been a pretty clean-cut victory for the American. That was until the judge’s scorecards were read out by Judges John Mariano (115-112), Gloria Martinez Rizzo (117-110), and David Singh (114-113), all in favor of Mastre.

Let me stress how miserably bad these scorecards were.

Anyone watching this fight can tell you that this will go down as the worst scored fight easily of 2021. I’ll start with Hall of Fame promoter Lou DiBella who flat-out said the contest was rigged.

There should be a Federal Investigation of #boxing and the WBA that begins on Monday. That was a 12 point win for @ProfessorMyke!!!!! And EVERYONE in boxing in the know SAW THIS COMING. Boxing is corrupt and disgusting with a rigged system of ratings and governance. ENOUGH!!!!!

— Lou DiBella (@loudibella) August 8, 2021

“There should be a Federal Investigation of #boxing and the WBA that begins on Monday,” Dibella posted on Twitter after the terrible ruling.”That was a 12 point win for @ProfessorMyke !!!!! And EVERYONE in boxing in the know SAW THIS COMING. Boxing is corrupt and disgusting with a rigged system of ratings and governance. ENOUGH!!!!! ” 

But, what about Mastre, the victor of the fight? Indeed, he’d say something that would sway any argument otherwise, right? I mean, despite getting knocked down, he still came out on top.

“When I was knocked down, I didn’t see the punch coming,” said Maestre. “He didn’t really hurt me, though, so it was no problem to get up and keep going. Fox fought very well, and he deserves a rematch. “It was a very close fight. If my team says, that’s what they want. I’ll be ready to fight him again.”

Not precisely the post-fight “I won fair and square” you were expecting to hear from the victor after a close fight. That’s because the actual winner of the fight to those that watched stated:

“I was stunned by the decision,” said Fox. “There’s no way he won more rounds than me. I knocked him down. I hurt him. I don’t know what else I was supposed to do. I don’t know what the judges were looking at. Look at his face and tell me he won that fight.”

That is pretty much how the whole viewing audience saw it.

Tweets from Boxingscene writer and commentator Corey Erdman that had come out from the judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo hint subtly that Fox may not have had a chance before the bell rang. The bigger problem, despite what Rizzo posts on social media here, is as old as boxing.

The judges judging these fights have been more often than not wrong, and at what point will we address it?

At the end of the day, as TJ Rives wrote, capping off the no contest between Eimantas Stanionis and Luis Collazo’s last ring bout, it’s for a WBA “interim” welterweight title. And, I won’t use this piece even to act as I care about that part.

I’m legit more concerned about the results of bad decisions that have ruined careers without any recourse from it. It’s troubling, and with last night’s blatant ruling in front of those in attendance and those who saw it on broadcast television, it shows that the just acceptance of this is even worse.

Look, I’m not here asking for robots and more replay tape in this. I’m just asking for accountability in judging to justify these horrendous scorecards. Otherwise, a sport with real lives at risk is in the hands of those who have predetermined scorecards and results.

This won’t be the last fight in 2021 with a trash scorecard, but it definitely is the worst and currently is the front runner for the decade. Those who want to catch up have some work to do.