Furious Rhodes demands Board action on Prizefighter scorecards

Glyn Rhodes, trainer of Sheffield super-middleweight Wayne Reed, was captured by Sky Sports' cameras at Wednesday night's Liverpool Prizefighter in a rather upset state. It's hard not to have sympathy with him.

He'd just seen his 23-year-old novice lose his three-round quarter-final against home town boxer Joe Ainscough, despite delivering a final round shellacking which ended with Ainscough being dropped. It appeared that Ainscough took the first, the second round was closer (which I gave to Reed) but the third was completely one-way traffic and Ainscough did well to hear the final bell.

Judge Victor Loughlin appeared right on the money with his tally of 29-27 to the Yorkshireman. Marcus McDonnell's card, at 29-28 to Ainscough, was generous in the extreme to the Scouser - but might very well have been influenced by the unpublicised detail that judges have been told not to give a draw. McDonnell obviously gave Ainscough the first two rounds and then only scored the third 10-9 to Reed.  This was bad enough.  

But it was the card of Ian John-Lewis which has caused confusion to most and almost a coronary to Rhodes. Inexplicably, IJL lodged a score of 30-28 to Ainscough - despite the knockdown.

As the final score of 30-28 was called by MC John McDonald, I happened to look at Ainscough; his facial expression and body language seemed to betray the expectation that he'd lost. When he was called the winner, shock in the Rhodes camp turned to anger.

When I spoke to Rhodes yesterday, I asked him if he'd calmed down a bit. He hadn't.

"No! I'm worse! We've just been mugged for four grand. I mean, we've all had bad decisions but this is something else. It's incompetence. If you or anybody else made a mistake like that, you'd get sacked. But what happens here? Nothing. Nothing ever happens. And anyway, at the end of the day, it's not going to get Wayne Reed his four grand back.

"I spoke to Robert Smith (General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control) at ringside and he said, 'Calm down, you'll get yourself in trouble. You know the game, you get bad decisions sometimes.' The security guards were there trying to keep me quiet.

"But this is wrong and it keeps happening and happening and nothing ever gets done. Nobody is brought to book about it. Jez Wilson (another of Rhodes' boxers) was due to fight in Barnsley two years ago and got bumped but he was still entitled to his purse and we went to the Board. And we're still waiting for it! As usual, it's the British Boxing Board of No Control.

"I know Board officials read your website and let me say right now that I'm urging them to take action on this.  It really is a black eye for boxing again and makes the sport look stupid. They really need to do something this time."

Robert Smith is right in that bad decisions happen. The difference in this case is that Ian John-Lewis' card literally does seem inexplicable.  IJL seems like a very nice guy and honest with it.  He shouldn't be subject to any kind of witch hunt. We're all human.  But the Board does need to make a statement on this matter. It was a typical microcosm of British boxing to be honest.  The sport always seems to find a way to shoot itself in the foot, even when the action is cracking.

And, as Matchroom sportingly offered Carl Dilks a second chance when he was wrongly announced the winner before being let down in a previous tournament, the promoter could do worse than accommodating the hard done to Reed next time they run the Prizefighter franchise anywhere near his weight.