Outrageous Ryan Burnett scorecard explained

PROMOTER Eddie Hearn has revealed the judge who farcically scored Lee Haskins the winner against Ryan Burnett had mistaken the two fightersโ€™ identities.

Burnett won the IBF bantamweight title in only his 17th professional fight by producing a thoroughly polished performance to convincingly outbox and almost stop the defending champion.

Two judges awarded him scores of 119-107, after knockdowns in the sixth and 11th rounds, but the scorecard of Americaโ€™s Clark Sammartino read 118-108 for Haskins, ensuring a split decision when a unanimous one was deserved.


The Northern Irishman, 25, is expected to make the first defence of his title back in Belfast before the yearโ€™s end despite suffering a significant cut over his right eye after an accidental clash of heads.

He excelled in beating Bristolโ€™s 33-year-old Haskins more convincingly than any other, but Hearn explained: โ€œApparently the judge asked one of the photographers, โ€˜Which oneโ€™s Lee Haskins?โ€™ and the photographer said โ€˜In the red cornerโ€™.

โ€œI think he asked him a couple of times, and I presume he thought, โ€˜The red shortsโ€™.

โ€œBut frightening, frightening that your future can be put in the hands of someone like that. I donโ€™t mean to be disrespectful because heโ€™s an old gentleman and Iโ€™m sure heโ€™s judged many fights, but that could have gone horribly wrong.

โ€œHe scored two 10-8 rounds to Haskins! His scorecard was excellent: it was just the wrong way around. Heโ€™s 80-odd; Iโ€™ve never seen anything like it.

โ€œI presume the split decision will be revoked. Itโ€™ll be a unanimous decision, it must be. But Iโ€™ve never seen anything like it.โ€

Burnett, long considered Northern Irelandโ€™s long-term successor to Carl Frampton, also emulated Wayne McCullough, another world champion, by winning world honours in his 17th fight, and he said: “Honestly, things like that shouldnโ€™t be happening, especially at world level, but it did, and it is what it is.

โ€œAbsolutely not (it wonโ€™t bother me if the record always reads as a split decision).

โ€œI almost fainted in the ring. I thought, โ€˜Theyโ€™re going to take it off me hereโ€™. Thank God the decision went in the right direction.โ€

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