It’s not uncommon for boxing referees to catch the odd stray punch in the heat of battle – but Eamonn Magill will have assumed he was safe as he prepared to confirm Ruadhan Farrell’s victory over Gerard Hughes.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Farrell produced a convincing performance to emerge from the super-bantamweight bout with a 79-73 win over Hughes, taking the Irish champion’s record to 7-1-1.
The pair renewed their rivalry on Saturday night’s Point of Pride card at Belfast’s SSE Arena, two years on from their draw at the same venue.
A dejected Hughes could not hide his frustration after being dealt the first defeat of his career at the 11,000-capacity arena in the Northern Irish capital.
But Farrell was the far busier of the two fighters across the early rounds, with Hughes left needing a knockout in the closing stages to come out on top.
There was little doubt over whose arm would be raised as Farrell and Hughes returned from their respective corners – and what happened next left viewers in hysterics.
As Farrell stretched out a consoling glove to his opponent as the pair waited for the verdict to be delivered, Hughes planted an accidental shot on the nose of referee Magill with a hefty uppercut.
Fortunately for Hughes, Magill took the punch like a champ, breaking into a fit of the giggles, before eventually holding Farrell’s arm aloft to pronounce the 25-year-old the winner.
Lewis Crocker got the better of Paddy Donovan in Saturday’s controversial headline event, with the latter disqualified for landing a late shot after the bell.
‘Listen to the crowd, the crowd can tell you, I won the fight, I was winning every single round. I dropped him, I was beating him up and I was getting the knockout,’ a furious Donovan said after his defeat.
‘The crowd is ferocious in here. They say I hit him after the bell but I thought I hit him on the bell. You can see Lewis was a beaten man and I won the fight fair and square.’
Donovan confirmed that he intended to launch an appeal against the decision ahead of a possible rematch with Crocker.
‘The referee took my dreams away tonight,’ he added.
‘We’re going to appeal the decision and I want an automatic rematch right on the spot.’
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