British heavyweight warrior Fabio Wardley has responded to the claims from the team behind his recent rival Justis Huni that the fight on Saturday night in Ipswich was waved off prematurely. As fans know, a tired and losing Wardley sensationally pulled out a big right hand to completely turn the fight around, thus saving him from what looked like certain defeat.
But Huni’s team, led by his manager Mick Francis, stated on the night that the fight had been stopped prematurely in that tenth round, this as Huni beat the count just – but was then waved off as unable to continue by the referee. Francis, amongst others, claims Huni was “not wobbling” and could have continued. Francis said on Saturday that he aims to file a protest with the WBA; the fight was a WBA interim heavyweight title fight.
Now, having heard all about the fuss, Wardley has responded as follows:
“For educational purposes. The count starts the second Huni hits the canvas. And it’s the fourth official outside the ring that starts the count, and the ref takes his queue from there to where to start,” Wardley wrote on X. “The referee is legally allowed to wave the fight off whenever he wants if he doesn’t feel the fighter is able to continue. It’s completely at his discretion. Just making the count isn’t enough. You have to be solid physically, mentally, and convince the ref that you’re all there and ready to continue. Clearly, he wasn’t.”
But the argument Team-Huni makes, or Francis certainly, is that Huni WAS in a position to continue. We will, of course, never know what might have happened had the fight been permitted to go on. But Wardley suggests a scenario that would have left people far more upset than they might be now.
“And then the ref sends him out……..I unload a barrage of shots, rendering him unconscious. Then the ref gets ridiculed for a bad decision. Which outcome would you prefer?” Wardley wrote.
Indeed, the job of a referee is a tough one at times – an early stoppage and he gets stick, a late stoppage and a fighter could end up badly damaged, and the third man gets seriously criticised.
Maybe Huni himself is the man to listen to here, and what he said after the fight: “I’m not going to kick up a fuss about it,” Huni said post-fight. “It’s done now. Fabio, he deserves to enjoy his win.”
Let’s see if that official complaint to the WBA does go ahead, and if so, what happens then.
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