The Jamaica Boxing Board of Control yesterday reversed the judges’s decision to give Team Jamaica’s Glenroy ‘Bumpy’ Beckford victory in the preliminary stage fight in the 2014 Wray & Nephew Contender Boxing Series at the Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium on Wednesday night.

The local governing body, in a release yesterday, confirmed Team Caribbean’s Christopher ‘Shaka’ Henry as the victor in the six-round contest on technical grounds.

According to the release, two judges, Keith Brown and Clifford Brown had scored the fight 57-57, while judge Lindell Allen had scored the bout 58-56 in favour of Henry, thus resulting in a majority draw.

However, since there must be a winner in order to move on in the Contender series, the two judges who had scored the fight a draw then nominated Beckford as the winner.

The original verdict was met with strong opposition from boxing fans, Henry and his Team Caribbean management .

The Team Caribbean lodged a protest and after reviewing the fight the decision was taken by the local governing body to reverse the decision in favour of Henry.

“The Jamaica Boxing Board of Control wishes to announce that following a protest from the Team Caribbean with regard to the decision at Wednesday’s Wray & Nephew Contender show, it has reversed the decision which gave a split decision victory to Jamaican Glenroy ‘Bumpy’ Beckford, over Barbadian Christopher ‘Shaka’ Henry.”

It added: “In their protest, Team Caribbean pointed to the fact that in the third round of the fight, Henry scored a knockdown that was not ruled a knockdown by the referee Ransford Burton, which would have automatically meant a point deduction for Beckford and given Henry victory at the end of the contest.

“The Appeal Panel reviewed a tape of the fight today (yesterday), and it showed that in the third round, after receiving two hard blows to the head, Beckford fell forward, and his gloves touched the canvas.

According to the rules of boxing, that should have been ruled a knockdown, and he should have been given a mandatory standing eight-count and have a point deducted.

“Since the referee did not rule the knockdown however, the judges could not have made the point deduction, and the Board wishes to make it clear that it agreed with the scores of the two judges in question, at the end of the fight, based on the facts. When the point is deducted however, Henry became the winner 57-56 and the JBBC Appeal Panel ruled accordingly, that the fight be awarded to Henry by unanimous decision.”

— Hurbun Williams