In a week of poor refereeing decisions it's Chad's turn to suffer
Tipped by many for the top in the world of professional boxing, Nottingham Super Middleweight Chad ‘2 Slick’ Sugden was on the unfortunate side of some poor judging in his fight in Derby on Thursday 15 December.
The six three-minute round bout on the card of the UNDEFEATED show at Derby County FC’s iPro Stadium was scored 58-57 in favour of Chad’s opponent, Huddersfield boxer Alistair Warren, leaving the Suggy’s Gym corner at a loss to understand the referee’s decision.
Speaking afterwards, Chad’s manager and head coach Dean Sugden said they were not alone in questioning the result. “Non-Championship fights have a scoring referee and even the promoter of the event agreed that it was a terrible decision by tonight’s ref.
“Yes, it was a close fight against a highly-rated opponent, which is why we wanted to test ourselves against him. But throughout the contest, the quality work was always coming from Chad. He did get drawn into a dog fight, showing he can scrap as well as box, and the crowd absolutely loved what everyone agreed was the fight of the night.
“Anyone who’s seen Chad box before will know he wasn’t at his best in this one but did he lose? I don’t think so – we won three rounds clearly, lost one maybe and did enough to at least share the other two.
“If you allow a fight to look close, you increase the risk of not getting the nod and we’re never happy with an under-par performance so, as always, we’ll watch it back and reflect. Win or lose, there are always lessons to be learned; you have to look in, not out and sometimes fights like this can be the catalyst for greatness.
“The good news is that Chad’s fans and followers won’t have to wait long until he’s back in the ring. His journey continues on Saturday 4 February when he returns to his birth place of Nottingham, where they’ll see a much-improved version of the boxer they all know is destined for the top.”