It was a boxing blunder for the ages.
Boxing announcer Dan Hennessey invoked the spirit of Steve Harvey at the Miss Universe Pageant when he incorrectly announced the winner of a women’s boxing title match on Saturday night.
Nina Hughes put her WBA women’s bantamweight title on the line against Cherneka Johnson, and after 10 rounds, the decision was up to the judges. Then enter Hennessey, a former United States Marine, to announce the winner. He said Hughes won by majority decision to retain her title as she celebrated the victory, as Johnson − and even the referee − looked to be confused by the result.
A few seconds later, Hennessey called the fighters back to the middle of the ring, where he then announced that Johnson was the winner of the fight and the new WBA women’s bantamweight champion. The broadcast crew was stunned to see what just happened.
“Is this guy for real?” ESPN announcer Joe Tessitore said. “What are we doing?
“Can somebody please; Mark Shunock, Jimmy Lennon, Michael Buffer, anybody but Lt. Dan Hennessey in this spot right now?” Tessitore added.
Joe Tessitore continued to rip into boxing announcer
The egregious error wouldn’t be let go by Tessitore as he continued to rant about the mistake Hennessey made.
“I want clean up what we saw with this absolute clown show, garbage amateur hour we saw with the ring announcer moments ago,” Tessitore said.
ESPN’s ringside reporter Bernardo Osuna then explained he had the scorecard for the match and Hennessey admitted to initially announcing the wrong winner.
Joe Tess unloads on the “absolute clown show garbage amateur hour” ring announcer and gets the corrected results pic.twitter.com/d1czlIp3B1
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 12, 2024
Hughes was understandably frustrated by what transpired. When she was interviewed in the ring, she thought the judges suddenly changed the scores in Johnson’s favor. Even though that’s not what happened, she was still upset from the moment.
“I don’t get how you can announce the winner and then change the scores,” she said. “It’s a joke. I feel like I’ve been robbed big time. There’s got to be a rematch. I didn’t lose that fight.”
Not Hennessey’s finest moment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Boxing announcer says wrong winner in Nina Hughes vs. Cherneka Johnson
