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LOS ANGELES – Before Israil Madrimov faced Terence Crawford, Madrimov’s manager Vadim Kornilov pleaded at the promotional press conference that he was “hoping that everything will be fair and neutral” on Saturday night.
Even though Kornilov planted a seed asking for fairness, Madrimov and his entire team are upset at the cards they were dealt, after Crawford was awarded a close unanimous decision in a competitive fight to take Madrimov’s WBA junior-middleweight title.
The four-division champion outlanded Madrimov 95 to 84, and the three judges scored the fight 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. They scored six of the 12 rounds, including the first two and last two rounds, the same.
Much like the demoralized Madrimov, Kornilov and his promoter Eddie Hearn, his long-time trainer Joel Diaz was also upset having to deal with the decision, and defeat.
“I had Israil winning at least six to eight rounds – some of the rounds were close,” he told BoxingScene. “Right now I am really mad at the whole fucking system. I feel disrespected by the fucking system of boxing.
“[Madrimov] did his best and everything he had to do to walk away with the win. It sucks.
“[Madrimov] should have done a little more. We were not just fighting Crawford. We were fighting the fucking judges, too – simple as that. Everyone knows it. It's common sense. You have to kill [Crawford] to get a draw. From the beginning, all of the attention was on Terence Crawford. I knew what we had, and me and my team put in a lot of work to put in a great performance.
“My fighter did what he had to do to win. I'm surprised by the decision. A draw would have been a win for us because [Madrimov] would be able to keep his title. He did enough to walk away with a draw.
“To me, a draw is a win against the best fighter in the world pound for pound.
“We can't yell at the world for a rematch. When we walked into this fight, it was a lose-lose for us and a win-win for Crawford. Right now, even though people say 'Israil won the fight' everything goes to Crawford.”
Diaz also explained why the fight was fought at the same tactical pace.
“[The fight never switched into second gear] because you have two great, smart fighters on top of their game playing chess and trying to make each other make mistakes and pay for it – it was a fight like that,” said Diaz.
“[Madrimov] was controlling the whole fight, walking him down 80 per cent of the time. He wasn't using a great volume of punches but everytime he threw, he landed great shots on Crawford.
“You can't have Israil throwing a high volume of punches against a guy who tries to make you make mistakes. You can't exchange a high volume of punches with Terence Crawford.
“Crawford is still on top of his game.
“I'm just fucking irritated. It's going to take me a while to get over this. It's not fair.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
