Was it a head butt or a punch?
The rematch between Joshua Franco and Andrew Moloney, for the former’s secondary junior bantamweight title, was stopped after two rounds because Franco’s right eye was swollen shut, which referee Russel Mora attributed to an accidental head butt.
Thus, it was ruled a no-decision because — in the event of an accidental foul — the fight must go four full rounds in order to go to the scorecards.
However, Nevada State Athletic Commission officials decided to use their new replay rule to determine whether it was an accidental foul or a punch that caused Franco’s eye to swell, which was evident before the first round was over.
The process of reviewing video took about a half hour, which seemed interminable. Officials, who evidently saw what they believe was the clash of heads in question, finally decided that Mora had made the correct decision and the no-decision stands.
Had officials ruled a punch caused the swelling, Moloney would’ve won by a technical knockout.
Questions will continue to be asked about the strange ending, however. ESPN repeatedly showed replays of a left jab that landed squarely on the eye, which analysts Andre Ward and Tim Bradley believed was the cause of the swelling.
Moloney (21-1, 14 KOs) threw more than 100 punches in the opening round, many of which were jabs that found the face of Franco (17-1-2, 8 KOs).
“The eye was closed by 50 jabs,” said a distraught Moloney, who seemed to be on the verge of tears. “I hit him early, saw a bump and then hit him with another 50 jabs. There was no head butt. I can’t believe they took this away from me.
“I trained my ass off for five months. I was away from my family. And they took it away from me like this. I hope [promoter] Bob [Arum] can get me a third fight.”
The fight was stopped by Mora at 1:45 of Round 2 to have the ring doctor check the eye. He allowed it to continue. Then, after that round was complete, the doctor took another look and stopped the fight.
Joshua won the 115-pound title by outpointing Moloney on June 23 at the same venue