EVEN MORE CONTROVERSY now surrounds Dennis Hogan’s majority-decision defeat to home fighter Jaime Munguia in last Saturday’s WBO World light-middleweight title clash in Monterrey, Mexico, with the bout’s sanctioning body confirming no drug-testing took place after the 12-round contest.
There was widespread outrage — even from a significant portion of Mexican observers — when heavy favourite Munguia retained his title on the judges’ scorecards despite appearing to lose the fight by at least two rounds, Hogan’s performance shocking the boxing world in its proficiency.
😡 @Dennis_H_Hogan is NOT happy with that decision.#MunguiaHogan pic.twitter.com/MdhzJaI8rw
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) April 14, 2019
Who Won The Fight? 🤔#MunguiaHogan
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) April 14, 2019
Hogan and his management/promotional outfit, DDP, have since lodged a formal appeal against the 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112 result to the WBO, whose world title belt the 34-year-old was denied.
The sanctioning body this morning indicated to Yahoo Sport’s Kevin Iole that they will deploy an independent panel of judges to assess the controversial scorecards.
However, it has also emerged that neither champion Munguia nor challenger Hogan were drug-tested following their compelling contest due to a supposed mishap with the local commission in Monterrey.
The WBO doesn’t have ‘mandatory’ drug-testing, per se, instead ‘encouraging’ and relying upon the local commission to conduct testing before and after each world-title bout.
WBO president Paco Valcárcel told Yahoo that while the lack of drug-testing was disappointing, it would not be grounds for him to order a rematch.
“There was supposed to be testing,” he said. “But the lab didn’t show up.
“We have to presume the guy [Munguia] was clean. He has no history of any issues. The testing should have been done, but the lab didn’t show up, so there was nothing that could be done.”
A rematch could still be ordered, however, if the WBO’s independent panel of judges find that the scoring on the night was indeed as errant as it seemed.
A feature interview with Dennis Hogan will be published on The42 on Saturday morning.
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to preview the Champions Cup semi-finals and all the week’s news on the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly:
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