The co-promoter behind WBC #14-rated middleweight Matvey Korobov says Team Korobov will file a protest to Virginia State officials over their fighter’s highly controversial majority draw last Saturday (May 11) against Virginia-based fighter Immanuwel Aleem.
Sampson Lewkowicz of Sampson Boxing says Korobov is, at the very least, a victim of incompetent officiating after what seemed like a clear decision win for Korobov was initially announced as a majority decision victory and later changed to a majority draw, due a reported mistake in tabulating the scores.
Korobov, from Florida, via Orotukan, Russia, had given an impressive performance in the well-fought 10-round bout, held in Aleem’s home state at the EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia.
The Russian southpaw appeared to most to win the first seven rounds handily. He scored what should have been ruled a knockdown in round four and hurt Aleem badly in round six before fatigue allowed Aleem to mount a minor comeback in the last two or three rounds of the bout.
Still, at the final bell, Korobov enjoyed a sizable advantage in landed punches (according to CompuBox statistics, Korobov landed 154 punches out of 417 thrown (37%), while Aleem landed 119 shots out of 630 [19%]) and deserved the nod in the eyes of the PBC on Fox commentators, as well as a huge majority of the boxing public.
He didn’t get his deserved victory, however, in the local judges’ eyes.
While New York-based Judge Dorothea Perry logged a realistic score of 97-93, Virginia-based judges Mark D’Attilio and Brian Costello both somehow scored the 10-rounder even (95-95). Strangely, Judge Costello scored rounds three and five for Aleem and gave him the last three rounds. Judge D’Atillo scored rounds four and five for Aleem, then gave him the last three rounds as well.
In his previous fight, Korobov was again the victim of what many call a questionable decision against Jermall Charlo. In that fight, in December of last year, Korobov had similarly banked a seemingly insurmountable number of rounds before fading later in the bout. Somehow that fight, for the interim World Boxing Council World Middleweight Title, was deemed a unanimous decision win for Charlo by even more shockingly wide scores.
“It takes away from a great night of boxing when judges do things like this,” said Sampson Lewkowicz. “This poor kid fights his heart out and then they keep taking it from him. He should be the middleweight champion of the world right now. Instead, he’s got one loss and one draw in his last two fights. These judges need to be disciplined. They are affecting the future of the boxer when they render these kinds of decisions. This isn’t a sport where a boxer can just play again next week. This is serious business and these judges need to realize that before they hand in these terrible scorecards. That could have been a great night for boxing to attract new fans and instead it was a reminder of how often a great night of boxing gets ruined by, at best, incompetent officiating.”
Korobov’s record is now 28-2-1, 14 KO’s while Aleem is now 18-1-2, 11 KO’s.