Daniel Dubois retained the meaningless secondary WBA heavyweight title due to a loophole in the rules of his fight with Kevin Lerena.
Questions hit social media after the first round as South African former cruiserweight Lerena battered Dubois all over the ring.
Knocking Dubois down three times, the fight should have been over under the rules of the World Boxing Association.
After being clobbered on the top of his head, Dubois also seemed to suffer a leg injury to compound his problems.
He subsequently took three counts throughout the round, but it wasn’t all due to the ailment as Lerena piled on the pressure.
UK knockdown rules
However, as the British Boxing Board of Control governed the event, Dubois got saved from a certain stoppage loss.
He rallied back to give Lerena trouble but only after being saved from more punishment in the opening session by an early bell.
The ding rang out a full nine seconds too soon but worked perfectly to get Dubois out of danger and back to his corner.
Following the instructions of Shane McGuigan, Dubois composed himself and cautiously eased his way through the next round.
He then completed an unlikely turnaround in the third. Lerena was hit by a clubbing right before, seconds from the bell.
Daniel Dubois wins on the bell
Dubois unleashed a barrage of shots, including a brutal left hook and right uppercut. That’s where things get ugly again.
Referee Howard Foster, who has form, stopped the fight even though the bell sounded for the end of the round. It was a shocking decision.
After the fight, one commenter said: “The bell rang ten seconds early in the first to save Dubois.
“Then Lerena takes two rounds off after scoring three knockdowns in the first round? Bit fishy.”
Another stated: “They completely disregarded the three knockdown rule.”
Journalist Ron Lewis added his view: “The WBA indeed used to have a rule that three knockdowns in a round were an automatic stoppage.
“I can only assume that wasn’t in effect. As Dubois had three counts in the first.”
Fury vs Chisora – Early results
Denys Berinchyk is the new European lightweight champion following his defeat of Yvan Mendy over twelve rounds.
The undefeated Ukrainian always appeared to be doing enough to edge most of the rounds. That’s despite being out of the ring for a year due to the invasion of his homeland.
Victor Loughlin scored the fight 117-112, with Kieran McCann and Kevin Parker returning cards of 116-112.
Berinchyk was accompanied to the ring by heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
The 22-year-old light heavyweight Karol Itauma made seven stoppages from his nine wins as a pro with a late halting game against Slovakian Vladimir Belujsky.
Chatham man Itauma, half Slovakian himself, outclassed the now Cork-based Belujsky. He systematically broke him down with a particularly spiteful jab.
Belujsky began to wilt seriously in the seventh round when a short right from Itauma started a sequence of punches that put the 27-year-old to the canvas.
He managed to see out the round. But further punishment inflicted by Itauma in the final round convinced referee Lee Every to call it off with 1.18 on the clock.
In a spectacular start to the evening, teenage prodigy Royston Barney-Smith applied another stunning finish to end the resistance of Cruz Perez in just over a minute.
A sweet left-hand counter put Perez to his knees. Despite protests, referee Mark Bates took a good look and waved the fight off. There was 1.02 of round one on the clock.
The 18-year-old Barney-Smith moves to 4-0.
The early birds of the card, Isaac Lowe and Hosea Burton, recorded victories over six rounds against Sandeep Singh Bhatti and Reinis Porozovs, respectively.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay. Twitter @PhilJWBN. Follow WBN: Facebook, Insta, Twitter.
