AFTER Thursday’s press conference ended with remarkable scenes, an 11-minute agonisingly arduous faceoff between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury before Saturday night’s rematch, there was another twist in the tale.
Miami’s Fernando Barbosa was one of the three judges agreed upon for this unified world heavyweight showdown, before withdrawing through illness midweek and needing to be replaced.
It was initially reported that New Jersey’s Steve Weisfield would likely step in, having travelled to Riyadh overnight and representing a familiar face to both.
Having judged bouts for over 30 years, this would mark his 2,875th per BoxRec and three of those have involved this weekend’s main event participants.
He had Fury ahead during both the second and third Deontay Wilder encounters, while scoring Usyk a 116-112 winner against Anthony Joshua during their first meeting in 2021.
Involved in multiple high-profile bouts over the last three months alone, including Canelo Alvarez’s unanimous decision win over Edgar Berlanga on Mexican Independence Day weekend and Gilberto Ramirez’s cruiserweight unification victory against Chris Billam-Smith on Saudi shores last month.
Yet an hour later on Friday, Sky Sports revealed the respective fighter teams remained split on which replacement judge should be chosen as Panama’s Ignacio Robles also flew in as an additional option.
Robles has been judging fights for nearly 30 years too, but far less frequently (743 bouts) and at a considerably lower level for longer – predominantly in Central American countries.
He and Weisfield scored Dmitry Bivol’s shutout win over Lyndon Arthur together in Riyadh last December, though besides Naoya Inoue’s dominant victory at Paul Butler’s expense, not much at the world championship level stands out from his resume.
Usyk and Fury’s camps were said to want opposing judges, undoubtedly wary of any underhand tactics by the other party to gain any favourable advantage.
During midweek, BoxingScene reported that Barbosa works for Fury’s US promoter Top Rank, so while he won’t be ringside this weekend, the Ukrainian’s team wanted to ensure no more potential surprises would come at the eleventh hour.
The rematch will be officiated by Puerto Rico’s Roberto Ramirez Jr, who notably was heavily criticised for his lack of assertiveness at times as the referee during Katie Taylor’s undisputed world light-welterweight rematch win against Chantelle Cameron last November.
The two other judges are Ramirez’s compatriot Gerardo Martinez and Chicago’s Pat Morley.
