Earlier today in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, unbeaten 154-pound contender Israel Madrimov scored a ninth-round stoppage over Michel Soro in a WBA final eliminator. This is the official result, at least, but there was major controversy. Madrimov stunned Soro with a flurry of shots towards the end of the 9th round and the Frenchman was on the ropes taking shots. Then the bell rang, but the referee did not hear it and Madrimov was allowed to throw, and land, anywhere from five to eight additional shots. Then, finally, the third man dived in and stopped the fight.
Then the arguments started, with both sides screaming. There was a long period of confusion but eventually the Uzbekistan fighter’s win was confirmed as official – for the time being at least. You can expect an appeal to be launched on the part of Team-Soro (Soro being trained by Abel Sanchez) and today’s TKO result may well be overruled.
Madrimov is now, at time of writing, 8-0(6), but that eighth win could easily be demoted to a No Contest. Soro falls to 35-3-1(24) – again, for now.
It was a good fight, with both men having their moments of success. Madrimov was seemingly edging rounds but this one was still very much up for grabs at the time of the hugely controversial ending. Soro was hurt before the round had ended, no doubt, but had the round ended when it should have ended, Soro would of course have had a full minute in which to recover. Instead, he never got that chance.
Referee Salvador Rodriguez will be under intense scrutiny over his handling of the fight during that ninth-round. Questions will be asked, chief among them, why did the referee not hear the bell? Soro could have been seriously hurt but thankfully this was not the case.
Right now, Madrimov is the WBA mandatory challenger for Jermell Charlo’s WBA belt. But again, today’s result may well be changed. Already there are calls for this to be the case. In the long list of controversies, this one ranks right up there with the worst of them.