Terence Crawford’s Next Opponent, Israil Madrimov Gets “Robbed of a KO” by Referee Who Makes Harvey Dock Look Good; Fans React to Resurfaced Clip

Ever since the referee, Harvey Dock from the recent Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney fight was seen as siding with Devin Haney for the many questionable calls he made, multiple videos of other referees not doing their best in the ring have popped up. The fresh one to join this list is the one that features Uzbeki fighter, Israil Madrimov.

These visuals have emerged amid news of Madrimov getting a fight against 2x undisputed champion, Terence Crawford. On August 3, headlining a massive card, Madrimov will defend his WBA super-welterweight title at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles as part of the Riyadh Season’s first overseas event. Crawford’s last fight was in July last year. Now, he scales up to 154lbs post stunning KO victory over Errol Spence Jr. last year. Thus this will be Madrimov’s first title defense since clinching the vacant title last month on the Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou undercard. However, the clip in question is from a little earlier.

In August 2020, Madrimov fought against Eric Walker in a Tulsa event at 153. In it, the fighter managed to break his 5 knockout wins streak as he defeated Walker on points. The matchup raked up some major drama after Madrimov dropped his opponent to the canvas in the ninth round. While everyone at the venue was in consensus that it was a knockout, the referee Gary Ritter ruled that it was not a knockdown or a knockout but rather Walker was knocked down by Madrimov’s shoulder.

Walker remained on the canvas for 1 minute complaining of dizziness while Ritter kept insisting that Walker get up and fight. Walker slowly stumbled and fell into his corner. The referee gave him a further 5 minutes in the corner to recuperate and then insisted upon continuing with the bout where he further took two more rounds of punishment at the hands of Israil Madrimov. After the fight, Gary Ritter was slammed by multiple sporting personalities for the bad call. A boxing fan uploaded an excerpt from this very moment on their X.

The video has nudged fans to express their disappointment in how the referee badly officiated the fight, which could have easily gone sideways.

Israil Madrimov robbed: Slip or KO?

The same X profile that posted the video was one among the first to condemn the mistake the referee made in assessing Walker’s fall, even though Madrimov’s KO was evident. They saw referee Ritter as worse than referee Harvey Dock.

That was indeed a lethal fall. A fan pondered why Walker continued the matchup post the fall. The admin of the account informed the fan that the fighter was given 5 minutes to recuperate from the fall.

Another user held no qualms about calling out the referee. They alleged that he was biased toward Walker. So much so that it felt like he had bet big bucks on the ‘Baby Faced Assassin.’

A fan sympathized with Madrimov because per them, he was robbed of his KO points.

In the recent Garcia vs Haney fight, the same thing happened. A user drew parallels in these instances.

Do you think there must be a mechanism through which wrong decisions by referees need to be accounted for? What do you think about these visuals? Did the referee not make the right call? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.