Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz says he disagrees with critics of referee Thomas Taylor’s decision to award WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora a last-round knockout over Ermal Hadribeaj on Saturday night. After a gritty and physical war of attrition, from the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Fundora (25-1-1, 17 KOs), overcame a slow start to successfully defend his title for the fourth time by knocking out mandatory challenger Hadribeaj (23-1-1, 8 KOs), with a series of left hands capped by a “buzzer beater” punch that dropped his foe just as/after the final bell sounded to end the 12-round fight. Albania’s Hadribeaj rose at the count of nine, but Taylor assessed his condition as spent and waved the fight over immediately, making the official result a KO 12 at 2:59. There is no dispute as to who should have been the winner, as the eleven scored rounds later revealed Fundora was on his way to winning a clear unanimous decision (he was ahead by107-100, 109-98 and 108-99 at the time of the KO). But many voiced post-fight that the verdict should have been determined as a decision on the scorecards because Hadribeaj literally went the distance, given he was able to get back to his feet after the knockdown.

 

Lewkowicz says Taylor reacted correctly to the unusual circumstances. “The rules say a fighter cannot be saved by the bell in any round including the twelfth. If the referee ruled the fighter was not fit to continue, and if he would have stopped it immediately if it happened at any other point in the fight, he would be letting Hadribeaj be saved by the bell if he didn’t stop it, regardless of the clock. That was the right thing to do for a fighter who is not in shape to keep fighting. People are saying Hadribeaj was robbed of going the distance. If Thomas Taylor hadn’t waved it off, he would have been robbing Sebastian Fundora of a knockout he earned in the ring. It goes both ways.”

 

“Not everyone in boxing will ever agree on everything,” Lewkowicz added, but Hadribeaj was so badly hurt he was taken to the hospital on a stretcher after the fight. Safety must come before all else in boxing. Thankfully he was released the next morning and will fight another day.”