When one of the boxers punched the referee, who was trying desperately to get even with a shot of his own, the battle turned into mayhem.
On Friday night, Angel Cruz faced off against Julio De Jesus at a performance in the Dominican Republic.
In the second round, Cruz unleashed a right hand rocket that left his opponent reeling and quickly spinning around in joy.
Even though De Jesus got back up fast, the referee dismissed the bout and gave Cruz the win, sending De Jesus to a seventh consecutive loss.
De Jesus was furious with the decision, making his protests known before briefly retreating to his corner.
Shortly after, he crossed the ring and gave the referee, who was facing away from him, a cunning sucker punch that caught him red in the jaw.
The shocked referee hesitated, then flushed.
After losing his seventh straight fight, Julio de Jesus [27-, 24 KOs], who has an 89% KO ratio, clipped the referee around the ear as he awarded the stoppage win to Angel Cruz [11-1, 9 KOs] in the second round.
The referee decided to fight back.
🎥 @shuanboxing #CruzDeJesus pic.twitter.com/MV6D2aR3Pq
— World Boxing News (@WorldBoxingNews) June 29, 2024
He waded into De Jesus’ corner and threw a looping right hand of his own at the man who had clipped him moments earlier. The shot didn’t quite appear to connect cleanly with a member of De Jesus’ team appearing to block the worst of it.
Cruz, who had won the fight, acted as peacemaker, pulling the referee away from the De Jesus corner, with the official perhaps wisely making a quick exit out of the ring as things kicked off.
Cruz extended his record to 11-1 with the victory. De Jesus, 42, is now likely to face a fine and a possible ban for attacking the official.
Their bout took place on a Shuan Boxing card in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo.
In 2014, a Croatian fighter was banned from the sport for life for brutally attacking a referee at a European Youth Boxing Championship event.