Mykal Fox vs. Gabriel Maestre II - Rematch Ordered

[Ruthless-RKO]

WBA suspending judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo after controversial scorecard, discovery of racist tweets

WBA president Gilberto Mendoza told ESPN on Wednesday that he is suspending judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo for six months following her highly controversial scorecard in the Mykal Fox-Gabriel Maestre interim welterweight title fight and the uncovering of racist tweets on an account belonging to her.

Mendoza said he will meet with Rizzo on Thursday in Miami to discuss discipline and will consider permanent expulsion from judging fights sanctioned by the WBA.

Rizzo turned in a head-scratching 117-110 scorecard Saturday in Minnesota, sparking outrage. Most observers thought Fox, who scored a second-round knockdown, clearly won the 147-pound fight in an upset. But it was Maestre who was declared the winner by unanimous decision in the PBC on Fox co-feature.

After the fight, racist tweets from 2020 were discovered on a Twitter account for @GloriaRizz, which had been tagged by the official WBA Boxing account in a December 2019 post celebrating Rizzo as female judge of the year. The @GloriaRizz account has since been deleted. Among the racist posts were remarks against Michelle Obama and LeBron James.

"We saw her score was wrong despite the unanimous decision," said Mendoza, who was born in Venezuela, where the WBA is based. "Those comments she made in the past -- she might be expelled by the WBA.

"I don't support any kind of racism. I believe in equality. ... Sports are the only thing that brings equality into the world sometimes."

While Rizzo's scorecard was the most problematic, the other two judges also had Maestre winning. John Mariano scored the fight 115-112; David Singh turned in a 114-113 tally.

Maestre (4-0, 3 KOs) is a native of Venezuela and holds a close relationship with Mendoza. A two-time Olympian, Maestre, 34, was making his U.S. debut and stepped up in competition for it.

Fox, a southpaw from Maryland, was coming off a decision loss to Lucas Santamaria in August. The 25-year-old, who is Black, told ESPN he "was a little surprised" by Rizzo's tweets.

"This sport has introduced me to people from different walks of life," said Fox (22-3, 5 KOs). "But I can't help but wonder if the person that she is outside of boxing affects how she judges boxing.

"If it weren't for it being on TV, I'd say this [decision] could do really bad for me. But people around the world witnessed a robbery that night."

The Minnesota Office of Combative Sports didn't respond when asked whether the result would be overturned; only the commission has the power to do so. It also didn't comment when asked whether the commission would review the scoring of the fight. Instead, it sent ESPN a statement saying, "The Minnesota Office of Combative Sports has a grievance procedure. However, it is ultimately up to the World Boxing Association to determine if there is a rematch."

Mendoza ordered an immediate rematch between Maestre and Fox but added a few stipulations. He told ESPN that there will be no champion's advantage; if there is a draw, the title will be vacated. And there will be no special permits to allow an interim fight. PBC was hoping to match fast-rising prospect Eimantas Stanionis against Maestre next, sources said. If for some reason the rematch doesn't take place next, the title will be in abeyance.

"We need to get new judges," Mendoza said. "I have a concept of making an academy and bringing people who like boxing to online courses and test them in different parts of the world. I want to step away from the boxing circle and find fans who like boxing [to become judges]."

[Ruthless-RKO]

Mendoza ordered an immediate rematch between Maestre and Fox but added a few stipulations. He told ESPN that there will be no champion's advantage; if there is a draw, the title will be vacated. And there will be no special permits to allow an interim fight. PBC was hoping to match fast-rising prospect Eimantas Stanionis against Maestre next, sources said. If for some reason the rematch doesn't take place next, the title will be in abeyance.

"We need to get new judges," Mendoza said. "I have a concept of making an academy and bringing people who like boxing to online courses and test them in different parts of the world. I want to step away from the boxing circle and find fans who like boxing [to become judges]."

[Ruthless-RKO]

This is gonna be one of them situations, where a guy wins unfairly in the first bout, but then ends up winning more clear in the rematch..

I hope i'm wrong..

[ironbeard]

The decision should be rescinded, vacated, thrown out.

[Ruthless-RKO]

The decision should be rescinded, vacated, thrown out.

Yes

[ironbeard]

All three judges should never be allowed to judge a boxing match again.

Six month suspension? That is BS.

[Enlightened-One]

Is the first fight good to watch? I've heard a lot about it but never watched it.

[ironbeard]

Is the first fight good to watch? I've heard a lot about it but never watched it.

It is ok, but totally dominated by Fox. Not a fight to go out of your way to watch, unless you want to see if our claims of obscene robbery are true.

[margaret thatcher]

Is the first fight good to watch? I've heard a lot about it but never watched it.

it wasnt very entertaining

[Ruthless-RKO]

[margaret thatcher]

the racist tweets were probably a good thing tbh, gives extra push to actually doing something about the bullsh!t decision and judging

[Ruthless-RKO]

the racist tweets were probably a good thing tbh, gives extra push to actually doing something about the bullsh!t decision and judging

Defo

[Ruthless-RKO]

Mykal Fox moving on, won’t accept WBA rematch order

Welterweight Mykal Fox will not face Gabriel Maestre in a rematch despite the WBA ordering one in the wake of Maestre being awarded a massively controversial decision on Aug. 7. Fox is moving on, Marshall Kauffman, his promoter, told World Boxing News on Thursday.

Maestre claimed the WBA’s vacant interim welterweight title via a shocking unanimous decision against Fox on a Premier Boxing Champions card televised on the Fox network from Minneapolis.

Fox, a short-notice opponent for Cody Crowley, who had come down with Covid-19, scored a clean knockdown in the second round and appeared to dominate virtually every round of the bout. Fox Sports’ unofficial scorer, Marcos Villegas, had Fox winning 11 of the 12 rounds.

However, judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo had a mind-boggling 117-110 scorecard in favor of Maestre, while judges John Mariano (115-112) and David Sing (114-113) also had it for Fox.

The result caused such an outrage among boxing fans and media that the WBA stripped Maestre (4-0, 3 KOs), 34, a two-time Venezuelan Olympian, of the interim title and ordered an immediate rematch. It also asked the Minnesota commission to change the result to a no-decision, although that seems to be a long shot.

The WBA also suspended Rizzo indefinitely, though not for her outrageous scorecard but because she was discovered to have posted multiple racist posts toward Blacks, namely Michelle Obama and LeBron James, in 2020 to her now-deleted Twitter account; Fox is Black.

“They ordered the rematch, but Fox’s father, Troy Fox, who is his trainer, said we don’t feel that is the right fight for us because what do we have to gain? We already beat him,” said Kauffman, who is in Las Vegas for Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas welterweight world title fight. “We want to move on to bigger and better things. And there are guys at the top of the list like Eimantas Stanionis and other guys in that division at 147 that we’d rather fight. Mykal feels the same way.”

MYKAL FOX SHOCK

Kauffman said Fox (22-3, 5 KOs), 25, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was utterly shocked by the decision.

“He couldn’t believe that it was such a crime like it was because it was a crime,” Kauffman said. “He felt he performed at the highest level, looked very good in the fight and them for them to turn it over the way they did – and not just one judge. Say what you want about 117-111, but all three judges scored it the opposite way, so it wasn’t good. Mykal felt bad about it. I felt like he deserved better than that, and he’s going to get better than that.”

Despite suffering an official loss, Kauffman said the silver lining is that Fox got a lot of positive publicity from his performance and the controversy.

“I think Mykal got more publicity from that fight than if he would have beaten Manny Pacquiao,” Kauffman said. “He got a lot of publicity from that fight. A lot of people got to see Mykal, and a lot of people saw him win that fight and went to bat for him, and we really appreciate that.”
The amount of fire the WBA has been under over the result of the bout has led the sanctioning body to promise that it would work to reduce the number of titles it hands out, so there are not multiple world titleholders in the same weight class.

WBA INTERIM

Kauffman said that was another reason why Fox had no need for the rematch with Maestre. “They’re supposedly getting rid of all the interim titles, so why even fight for it again,” Kauffman said.

They would rather turn their attention to Stanionis (13-0, 9 KOs), 27, a 2016 Lithuanian Olympian, and a top prospect. He is coming off a fourth-round no-decision against former welterweight world titlist Luis Collazo in the main event of the Aug. 7 PBC on Fox card. The fight ended when an accidental head butt left Collazo with a bad cut over his right eye and unable to continue.

“There’s been discussions about fighting Stanionis and a couple of other guys as well, but (Stanionis) is the guy we’d like to fight,” Kauffman said, adding the timeframe for the fight would be October. “We wanted to fight Stanionis before, but the fight with Maestre was the right fight for Mykal to get back in the ring, and it was perfect because it was on national TV. So, we’d love to fight Stanionis. He’s tough, but Mykal has the ability and the style, and, as you know, styles make fights. I think Mykal has the style to beat a whole lot of guys who are flat-footed punchers.”