The quality of officiating at Monday morning's middleweight boxing contest between T&T's Aaron Prince and Slovakia's Andrej Csemez is being questioned by boxing aficionados, here in T&T.
Two days after Prince was defeated 4-0 in a unanimous decision contest, both Cecil Forde, president of the T&T Boxing Association (TTBA) and Ralph Peterkin, former national boxer now turn coach, have said the Slovakian should have been called out for excessive holding. And to their disbelief, Csemez was not even given as much as a warning.
Forde, the T&T representative on the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA), which is the governing body for boxing at the Olympic Games said the rule regarding holding resides with the referee.
"If a boxer is caught holding he/she is given three warnings, and if he/she persists, then they are disqualified. I believe if the referee had done this in that fight then Prince would have won the fight, but instead, the Slovakian was not even given a warning once for excessive holding," Forde told Guardian Media Sports.
The TTBA boss is convinced that despite a slow start by his charge, he recovered in the second and third rounds to claim wins. From the five judges employed on the night, only Colombian judge Wulfren Olivares called the fight a draw, while the four others ruled convincingly in Csemez's favour.
A defensive approach in the opening round by Prince earned the Slovakian the win. The Trinidadian, apart from failing to offer any offence in the round, was also knocked down midway in the first round and had to receive the standing eight count. But he came alive in the other two rounds, causing the referee to stop the fight frequently for excessive holding by Csemez.
Ex-boxer Peterkin jokingly said the number of times Csemez's arms were around Prince's neck and hands he thought Prince was Csemez's wife.
Peterkin, a former national lightweight boxer, said Prince's lone downfall was that he started too defensive. "Otherwise, the referee should have warned Csemez for holding on many occasions, have points deducted from him, or even disqualify him. It turned out to be a wrestling match," Peterkin explained.
He added: "For me, a lot of the shots that Csemez fired also did not connect, but I guess it just was not Prince's day."
The 35-year-old Prince echoed similar sentiments after the fight, saying had the referee not allowed Csemez to hold as much as he did, the Slovakian would have been knocked out.