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Boxing fans and pundits are accusing Australian Liam Wilson of cheating after Saturday’s controversial WBO super featherweight title fight against Emanuel Navarrete in Phoenix.
The Queenslander side launched a protest over their claims that Wilson was ‘stolen’ when the Mexican favorite had 27 seconds to recover from a trademark left hook that dropped him in the fourth round.
Some boxing fans and pundits are accusing Australian Liam Wilson of cheating after Saturday’s controversial WBO super featherweight title fight against Emanuel Navarrete in Phoenix.
The Queenslander side have claimed Wilson was ‘stolen’ after the Mexican favorite was allowed 27 seconds to recover from a trademark left hook that dropped him in the fourth round.
Boxing rules state that a fighter is only allowed 10 seconds to recover from being knocked down by his opponent.
But now some fight fans are claiming the Mexican was tough, saying Wilson hit Navarrete while his glove was touching the canvas during the fourth-round knockdown, which is a foul.
“For all the Twitter complaints about the mouthpiece/long count in the fourth round, Wilson clearly hit Navarrete when he was gloved down in the same round and the referee failed to warn or call him.” An eye for an eye,” boxing journalist Dan Rafael tweeted.
‘1. If the referee took a point from Navarrete, he washed the mouthpiece and then resumed the action, that has been worse. Navarrete would have had more time. 2. Navarrete had his hand on the canvas. Wilson hit a downed opponent, a foul. These sanctions are offset, in my opinion”, another user wrote.
‘Why isn’t anyone talking about the blow Wilson landed after Navarrete’s glove touched the canvas? It should be DQ’, wrote a third.
“Okay, the ref totally screwed up two different things,” another fight fan responded, with others adding “he should have had five minutes to recover from that punch” and “Wilson hit him in the back of the head!”
Navarrete, unbeaten since 2012, roared to win his 11th world title fight in a third division via ninth-round knockout.
Those extra 17 seconds after the knockdown were life-changing for Wilson, whose US debut victory would have been at least equal to the upset world title losses of Jeff Horn five years ago and Jeff Harding nearly 30 years ago. before that.
Navarrete (pictured), unbeaten since 2012 in 31 fights, roared to win an 11th world title fight in a third division via ninth-round knockout.
If a bizarre weigh-in drama followed on Thursday, Wilson was about 2kg lighter than he expected when the fighters stood on the scales.
Navarrete snuck in just under the super featherweight limit of 59kg, drawing accusations of cheating and tampering with the scale to ensure the Top Rank star made weight.
“For me, it was just a big pee take and he looked good and really planned to buy him some time,” Wilson told reporters in Arizona on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) of the delay in which referee Chris Flores stopped the count. , picked up Navarrete’s mouth guard. and then reinsert it upside down.
I knew I was against it.
‘The debacle of the scale a day before, then the referee is doing that.
Promoter No Limit immediately filed a protest after the controversial fight, one that the Arizona Boxing Commission will review at its next meeting on February 15.
“For us to cause the upset, they would have hated it… it was easy for them to sabotage because they had power in other areas.”
Promoter No Limit immediately filed a protest, one that the Arizona Boxing Commission will review at its next meeting on February 15.
A blockbuster defense against two-division champion and Mexican star Oscar Valdez is already in the works.
But Wilson’s team wants a no-contest, which would strip Navarrete of the belt, erase the loss from the Queenslander’s record and force the WBO to adopt new plans.
“I definitely want a rematch if it’s for the exact same position,” Wilson said, confirming that Navarrete had not ruled out the idea of an Australian rematch “if the money was right.”
Wilson’s team wants a no-contest, which would strip Navarrete of the belt, erase the loss from Queenslander’s record and force the WBO to come up with new plans.
‘It has to be to win a world title; I wouldn’t do a rematch for nothing… (and) I’d love to do it in Australia.’
Helping Wilson’s case is support from the boxing community at large, with respected US analysts backing up what might otherwise be seen as false claims.
American boxing promoter Lou DiBella believed the Australian deserved a long-term rematch.
legitimate complaint. Awful. Ask for a rematch,’ she wrote on Twitter.
“It was a joke, but we hate to talk like that,” Wilson’s trainer Ben Harrington said.
‘We are real boxing people. Saying ‘they rob us’ is not us and it is not Navarrete’s fault either.
‘The last thing you want to do is cry, but it’s so blatant you can’t help it.
‘Unfortunately, it’s quite common in boxing; Corruption judge, eight long accounts.