Arnold Barboza earned a controversial split decision victory over Sean McComb on Saturday night.
The welterweight contest served as the main support for the grudge match between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia at the Barclays Center in New York – and it looked like McComb had done enough to win it when the final bell rang.
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McComb picked up the pace throughout and appeared to be the busier fighter.
However, the judges gave Barboza a split, with one judge having it 98-92 in McComb’s favor while the other two had it 96-94 and 97-93 the other way.
Watching from ringside, Eddie Hearn couldn’t believe his ears as the scorecards were read.
“How the hell do you have a scoreboard that says 98-92 for McComb and 97-93 for Barboza?” the head of Matchroom Boxing said on the DAZN show.
“It makes absolutely no sense. I thought McComb won.
“The scale of the dashboards, it must be impossible. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Hearn wasn’t alone in his assessment of the fight. Fans rushed to social media to cry foul.
Reacting to the move, one fan tweeted: “Wow! McComb was completely robbed there! Honestly how do we even get these scorecards?”
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Another wrote: “Arnold Barboza Jr. earns highly controversial split decision victory over Sean McComb.
“You have to feel for McComb there. Framed beautifully and absolutely won that fight. Terrible decision. Unbelievable.”
A third added: “WTF!!! Direct steal! That was some good defensive skills from McComb.
“He definitely should have given it to Sean McComb, Barboza didn’t have enough…they robbed McComb! Why did they raise their hands?”
According to CompuBox, McComb defeated Barboza in six of ten rounds.
Meanwhile, both men were separated by three punches or fewer in eight of ten rounds.
The overall punching stats were close, with McComb landing 107 punches to Barboza’s 99, but the cleaner work was undoubtedly done by the Irishman.
42 percent of Barboza’s shots were body punches.
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