In the main event of the evening in Riga in one of the cruiserweight semifinals of the World Boxing Super Series Mairis Briedis scored a third round TKO win over Krzysztof Głowacki and took his WBO world title.
Quite equal first round gave way to the second round, eventful and very controversial due to the actions of both boxers and a referee. In one of the episodes Glowacki hit Briedis with left hook on the back of the head and Briedis immediately answered with right elbow, hitting Glowacki on the chin. Glowacki not looked hurt after this blow, but obviously felt it, and rather theatrically fell to the floor, perhaps hoping for disqualification of his opponent.
Referee Robert Byrd asked Glowacki to stand up and deducted one point from Briedis, though, in principle, the Briedis' elbow was quite enough for disqualification if the fight was, for example, in Gdansk. In the next episode of this round Briedis went ahead and was able to hurt Glowacki, and then send him to the floor of the ring in real knockdown this time. The Pole could get up and continue the fight, but at that moment the bell rang. The referee at the same time may not be hearing the bell, although it was ringing continuously, the fight has not stopped and Briedis sent Glowacki to the floor once again. At this point in the ring members of both teams rose already and representative of Briedis team even jumped into the ring to show Byrd that the bell run.
During the break, Byrd said to someone at ringside, perhaps, to the supervisor of the fight, that he did not hear the bell. Yet Briedis in an interview after the fight said that he heard the bell fine, but as the referee did not stop the action, he continued to attack.
In the third round Briedis again managed to hurt Glowacki with a right hand and send him to the floor. Krzysztof rose, but his legs were still soft and the referee decided to stop the fight. The time was :27.
Overall, the Briedis' victory did not cause any doubts, but the actions of Mairis and especially of 76-year-old referee Robert Byrd may give a purely formal grounds for Glowacki team to file a protest on the outcome of the bout. It is worth noting that Glowacki team did not wait for the official announcement of the result and left the ring.
Thus, in the second season of the World Boxing Super Series final new WBO champion Mairis Briedis will meet an "interim" IBF champion Yunier Dorticos. Vacant WBC title could be at the stake of Briedis vs Glowacki fight, but Mauricio Sulaiman, the President of the Council, just one day before the battle said that he withdrawn his belt reportedly due to conflict with the organizers of the tournament on the selection of officials.
Here are the highlights of the fight:
