Malik Scott gets counted out, even though the referee didn’t appear to reach the count of 10
Malik Scott is probably never going to win the heavyweight championship, so in the grand scheme of things, Saturday's loss at Wembley Arena in London to Dereck "Del Boy" Chisora won't make much of a difference.
But fair is fair and referee Phil Edwards appeared to cost Scott a chance to win the fight and keep his unbeaten record.
In the sixth round of the scheduled 10-rounder, Chisora had Scott pinned in a corner and landed a series of clubbing punches. Scott went down from a right.
Scott appeared to be clear-headed, as the announcers noted while examining the replay, and he took the count on one knee. In professional boxing, there is a mandatory eight-count after a knockout and a lot of fighters choose to take it on the knee as a way to clear their heads and catch a break.
Scott was clearly watching Edwards as the referee counted directly in front of him. Scott appears to get to his feet when Edwards reached nine. Inexplicably, though, Loughlin waved the bout off and called it a TKO for Chisora.
The countdown begins at the 23:40 mark and the announcers begin to break down the finish at about the 25-minute mark on the video. Edwards is counting and using his fingers as he administered the count. But he never said 10 or put up 10 fingers.
[Warning: Graphic language in below video]
2013-07-20 Dereck Chisora vs Malik Scottby sweetboxing12
The announcers noted that Scott seemed clear-headed and pointed out he seemed to get up at "nine or nine-and-a-half."
It certainly seemed like Scott was on his feet at nine and deserved the chance to continue.
On his Twitter page, Scott was asked if it were a good stoppage. He wrote, "got hit wit good shot..took count and was good 2 go"
The loss was the first of the 32-year-old American's career and dropped him to 35-1-1. Chisora is now 17-4 with 11 knockouts.
