Israil Madrimov’s Trainer Rips Scorecards In Terence Crawford Fight
Joel Diaz, the trainer for Israil Madrimov was stunned by the scorecards for the Terence Crawford fight.
Madrimov entered the fight as a sizeable underdog, but he exceeded expectations as the fight was more competitive as people thought. In the end, it was Crawford who won by unanimous decision with the scorecards being 116-112, 115-113 and 115-11.
Although many did think Crawford edged it, Diaz thought his fighter won and was stunned by the scorecards.
“I had Israil winning at least six to eight rounds – some of the rounds were close,” he told BoxingScene. “Right now I am really mad at the whole fucking system. I feel disrespected by the fucking system of boxing. [Madrimov] did his best and everything he had to do to walk away with the win. It sucks.
“[Madrimov] should have done a little more. We were not just fighting Crawford. We were fighting the fucking judges, too – simple as that. Everyone knows it. It’s common sense. You have to kill [Crawford] to get a draw. From the beginning, all of the attention was on Terence Crawford. I knew what we had, and me and my team put in a lot of work to put in a great performance.
“My fighter did what he had to do to win. I’m surprised by the decision. A draw would have been a win for us because [Madrimov] would be able to keep his title. He did enough to walk away with a draw. To me, a draw is a win against the best fighter in the world pound for pound. We can’t yell at the world for a rematch. When we walked into this fight, it was a lose-lose for us and a win-win for Crawford. Right now, even though people say ‘Israil won the fight’ everything goes to Crawford.”
Diaz says Israil Madrimov deserved to win and he is beyond frustrated with the result and how the judges saw the fight.
“[The fight never switched into second gear] because you have two great, smart fighters on top of their game playing chess and trying to make each other make mistakes and pay for it – it was a fight like that,” said Diaz. “[Madrimov] was controlling the whole fight, walking him down 80 per cent of the time. He wasn’t using a great volume of punches but everytime he threw, he landed great shots on Crawford.
“You can’t have Israil throwing a high volume of punches against a guy who tries to make you make mistakes. You can’t exchange a high volume of punches with Terence Crawford. Crawford is still on top of his game. I’m just fucking irritated. It’s going to take me a while to get over this. It’s not fair,” Diaz added.
With the loss to Crawford, Israil Madrimov is now 10-1-1 as a pro.
