Daylight Robbery: Michael Gomez Jnr Denied a Deserved Victory on Saturday Night
Robbery is an overused term in boxing. It’s thrown around far too easily. A close fight doesn’t constitute a fighter being denied a rightful victory. But at the O2 Arena on Saturday night, we saw a heavy dose of daylight robbery.
Michael Gomez Jnr (23-2-1) should be waking up this morning the newly crowned British and Commonwealth lightweight champion. Louie O’Doherty (12-0-1) was extremely fortunate to leave that London ring with his titles and unbeaten record still intact. Gomez won the fight, but the judges inexplicably couldn’t split them on the cards.
It wasn’t a hard fight to score. The winner was apparently obvious to all. Except the three scoring officials. Of course, they are the only ones that matter. But to many, including this observer, they got it wrong. Badly.
When the scores were read out after twelve rounds, there was seemingly little drama. But somehow, Gomez was only awarded a highly controversial majority draw. One judge scored it to Gomez by a wafer-thin margin of 115-114. It was far too close, but at least Steve Gray had the right man winning. But he was overruled by his colleagues, seeing the fight all even at 114-114. Gomez, quite rightly, was stunned and immediately left the ring. An understandable reaction on what should have been the biggest night of his boxing career. Even O’Doherty looked bewildered at the scoring of the fight. An expression that said he knew he had lost. He did.
I thought Gomez dominated the opening half of the contest. The 31-year-old challenger couldn’t miss with his jab, and he looked far too big for the reigning champion. O’Doherty was clearly struggling, and I felt eventually Gomez would get the stoppage.
The 26-year-old champion bravely stayed in there and did have pockets of success. But after ten rounds, you would struggle to give O’Doherty two rounds. I thought Gomez gave away the final two rounds, obviously thinking he had the fight in the bag. In truth, he had. But the judges saw it completely differently from everyone else. Gomez will surely regret those final six minutes. Ultimately, they cost Gomez the British and Commonwealth titles.
But even without those final two rounds, Gomez should be a double-champion this Sunday morning. Gomez won beyond doubt. Scoring is subjective, they say. An excuse used when the scoring officials get it wrong. On Saturday night, they got it wrong. Gomez deserves a rematch. But he deserved much more.
Photo Credit: Queensberry Promotions
