We’ve all had bad days at work, but at least we’ve never been a boxing announcer who gave the wrong result live in the ring.
That’s exactly the situation that ring announcer “Lieutenant” Dan Hennessey made after a recent fight.
The gaffe came on Sunday (May 12) in Perth, Australia, following the match between Nina Hughes and Cherneka Johnson.
The pair had gone toe-to-toe for 10 rounds and were in the ring, waiting for the judges’ decision to be announced.
However, no-one could have expected what came next.
Hennessey read out the scorecards and said: “Your winner by majority decision, and still the WBA women’s bantamweight world champion, Nina Hughes!”
The boxers both appeared to accept the decision, and Hughes celebrated around the ring. However, Hennessey then recounted, and called the fighters back.
Correcting his earlier announcement, he said: “Your winner by majority decision, fighting out of the blue corner, Cherneka Johnson!”
As you’d expect, the development left Hughes and her team angry – and the commentators on ESPN
Hughes — who, just seconds earlier, had been celebrating — was left dumbfounded. And so too were ESPN commentators Joe Tessitore and Timothy Bradley.
“Is this guy Lieutenant Dan Hennessy for real?” Tessitore said.
“Get this dude up out of here man,” Bradley added.
It’s one of the biggest (and most embarrassing) boxing moment of the year so far, which otherwise has been dominated by talk of Mike Tyson’s fight against Jake Paul.
Tyson, 58, recently sent his upcoming boxing opponent Paul, 27, a message ahead of their fight on 20 July.
The hotly anticipated match at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will see the boxing legend come out of retirement.
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