A furious Issac Hardman has accused Australian boxing officialdom of being biased against his gym – and branded them “f…ing dinosaurs” – after a contentious split decision loss on the undercard of Tim Tszyu’s world title blockbuster.
Hardman was left seething, and close to tears backstage, after being on the wrong end of a close loss against Rohan Murdock.
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Two judges gave the fight to Murdock 97-92. A third gave Hardman the bout 96-93 however, with Main Event’s Ben Damon even admitting in commentary it could have been a draw.
Murdock started very well, dominating the earlier rounds as Hardman looked to counter – but took plenty of shots along the way.
Hardman increased his output and poured on the pressure from the middle rounds and into the latter stages, landing powerful shots that rocked Murdock, who showed remarkable resilience and always fought back.
The bout progressed into an all-out brawl by the final rounds, while Murdock was also handed a points deduction in the latter stages for losing his mouthguard mid-round, something the referee judged was deliberate.
Speaking afterwards, Hardman described the vastly different scorecards as “fishy” and demanded the only way things would change was with a complete overhaul of the Australian National Boxing Federation (ANBF).
“That was a close fight,” the super middleweight said afterwards.
“And please say that I stressed it was close.
“But you know when you win or lose a fight.”
Soon after, he continued: “I’m 26 years old.
“But the dinosaurs in the f…ing corner, they’ve had their go. Revamp the ANBF.
“Get rid of them. It needs a cleanout.
“F…ing whoever it is. We need young guys …”
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Hardman was furious with the wide variance in scoring, and said it was not the first time a fighter from his Nitro Boxing gym in Brisbane had suffered this way.
“I must be a c…,” he fumed. “I must be an a..hole, someone mustn’t like me at ringside.
“I get people pump smoke up each other’s ass. But I don’t need that.
“If I lost I lost.
“You saw that against Zerafa.
“I wore it on the chin.
“I’m not here to be gassed up, ‘oh, you won’.
“F… that, I’m not about that.
“I won or lost.
“And I feel I won.
“It’s just really frustrating because I’ve seen it happen to my team (too).
“Same judges.
“One in particular.
“One judge, same judge has always given us a bad go. It’s disgusting.
“It really is.
“It’s f…ed.”
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Hardman added that he had done exactly what ANBF officials had told him in fighter meetings would win a decision.
“And look, I’ve got to watch it back,” he shrugged. “I might come off like a d…head.
“But I hurt him on four different occasions.
“I knew he was hurt.
“Hurt him to the body.
“And we’ve been to the ANBF (meetings) where they talk about how fights are scored.
“And 70 per cent of it is meant to be effective power punches.
“I landed effective power punches.
“He threw that flick jab and, yeah, it was good. Funny rhythm.
“Flicked my head back every now and again.
“It was landing points.
“I get that.
“But f…, I was rumbling.
“Hurt him.
“But if I watch it back later tonight when my head is clearer and I lost, I’ll make a statement to you guys and say ‘I come off like a d…head, I lost.
“That’s who I am.
“But you saw my coach lift me up at the end. Coaches know.
“And he wasn’t parading around like he won.”