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LAS VEGAS – Eddie Hearn couldn’t believe what he heard Friday night.
After watching what the British promoter considers one of the most fantastic action fights in the history of women’s boxing from a ringside seat, Hearn expected either Mikaela Mayer or Maiva Hamadouche to win their 10-round slugfest by the score of 96-94. Hearn, whose company, Matchroom Boxing, promotes Hamadouche, thought their back-and-forth fight was extremely competitive and suspected either fighter could’ve won.
The three judges completely disagreed with Hearn’s take on how a fight ESPN+ streamed from Virgin Hotels Las Vegas unfolded.
Lisa Giampa somehow scored all 10 rounds for Mayer (100-90), who needed several rounds from the opening bell to adjust to Hamadouche’s relentless pressure. Max De Luca (99-91) and Tim Cheatham (98-92) scored nine rounds and eight rounds for Mayer, respectively.
Mayer (16-0, 5 KOs), a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Colorado Springs, Colorado, retained her WBO junior lightweight title and took the IBF 130-pound crown from France’s Hamadouche (22-2, 18 KOs). The 31-year-old Mayer is represented by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which promoted the six-bout card headlined by the Mayer-Hamadouche match.
“You get a fight of the year and 6-4 either way, no complaints,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com. “But 100-90?”
Hearn took particular exception to Giampa’s scorecard.
“She should have to go before the commission and say, ‘This is how I scored the fight. This is what I saw,’ ” Hearn said. “Scoring is subjective, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to be accountable. If you’re not accountable to the media, you should be accountable to the commission. … I’ve been watching boxing for 35 years, so I think I know a little bit about how to score a fight.”
CompuBox’s unofficial punch stats indicated their title unification fight was much closer than the scorecards showed.
Mayer landed just six more punches overall than Hamadouche, according to CompuBox (239-of-594 to 233-of-872). CompuBox counted 10 more power punches for Mayer (221-of-470 to 211-of-728) and four more jabs for Hamadouche (22-of-144 to 18-of-124).
The 32-year-old Hamadouche had her 13-fight winning streak snapped by Mayer. Before Friday night, she hadn’t lost since former lightweight champ Delfine Persoon defeated her by unanimous decision in November 2015.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
