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Sometimes you see an injustice that makes you question your world. What took place in Montreal last Friday night, made me sick.
In the last few seconds of the 12th round, challenger Librado Andrade in my opinion was robbed of a win by referee Marlon Wright. IBF Super Middle Champion Lucien Bute was given a ‘Long Count’ by the referee, who in my opinion, allowed the hometown boxer to win the bout.
Throughout the fight, Bute had dominated Andrade. In my unofficial scorecard, I had 10 of the 11 first rounds for Bute. Then the 12th round happened.
Andrade came out looking for the knockout and he found a slower and rattled Bute, who went down once. To his credit, Lucien got up and went punch for punch with Andrade, who knocked the champion down again with less than 10 seconds left.
At this point, referee Wright wasted four seconds telling Andrade to return to his corner. He started the count at four but then he slowly counted up to seven.
The referee then proceeded to yell at Andrade again. No one knows why Wright did this, since Andrade was in his corner. The count resumed at seven, with another slow count by Wright.
This gave Bute enough time to barely stand when the referee counted 10, during which time the bell rang to announce the end of the fight.
What a controversy.
The fight was decided by the judges, who all scored the fight for Bute. Don`t get me wrong, Bute deserved to win the bout if the contest would have finished with both fighters still standing.
The reality is that Bute did not deserve to win the bout. Andrade knocked him out and if the count had been delivered properly, there would be a new IBF champion.
Howard Grant, who stood as Andrade`s trainer for this fight, spoke to the media on Saturday. Grant fully expects that Golden Boy Productions, Andrade’s promoter, will deliver a formal complaint to the IBF offices on Monday.
