A BOXING referee was punched hard during a fight in New Jersey on Saturday night.
The shocking incident occurred during a fight between Keyshawn Davis and Miguel Madueno at the Prudential Center in Newark.
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Davis and Madueno fought until the final whistle of the sixth round – and after.
The pair came face to face with referee David Franciosi forced to intervene and separate them.
But as he did so, he received an inadvertent shot in the face from Madueno.
The officer was clearly shaken by the incident as he stumbled backwards.
Both fighters eventually retreated to their respective corners after the match.
The referee was heard live on ESPN asking Madueno’s corner “who the hell just hit me?”
Commentators then speculated whether Madueno would be disqualified for the incident.
And one fan said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Why the referee didn’t care about getting slapped is crazy to me!”
Madueno was allowed to continue the fight with impunity, to the surprise of many.
But he slumped to a unanimous points defeat in the 10-round lightweight contest.
All three judges scored it 99-91 for winner Davis.
The 25-year-old from Norfolk, Virginia, improved his record to 11 wins in 11 fights with seven knockouts.
Meanwhile, Mexican-born Madueno, also 25, fell to a 31-3 record in his latest loss.
“We both went hard there and neither of our wills were broken,” Davis said.
“He’s a rough guy, a really physical guy.
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“We were doing a lot of brutal tactics there, just trying to get under each other’s skin.”
Davis is a silver medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
He is ranked third in his weight by the WBC, WBO and IBF.
“I know Denys Berinchyk (WBO champion) mentioned my name. I’m definitely targeting Berinchyk,” Davis confirmed.
The fight appeared on the undercard of Shakur Stevenson’s fight against Artem Harutyunyan.
Stevenson retained his WBC lightweight title with a unanimous points victory in the main event on Saturday night.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
