Boxing judge suspended after racist tweets, controversial scorecard

The World Boxing Association (WBA) president on Wednesday said the organization is suspending judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo for six months after a controversial scorecard and unearthed racist tweets from her now-deleted Twitter account, ESPN reported.

WBA President Gilberto Mendoza will meet with Rizzo on Wednesday to discuss disciplinary action, which may include permanent expulsion from WBA-sanctioned fights. 

Rizzo’s highly controversial 117-110 scorecard in the Mykal Fox vs. Gabriel Maestre interim welterweight title fight on Saturday sparked outrage in the boxing community. Many observers reportedly believed that Fox clearly won after he scored a second-round knockout. But, to the audience’s confusion, Maestre was declared the winner. Fox later called the fight a “robbery,” according to USA Today.

Rizzo’s now-deleted Twitter account, which was tagged by the official WBA Twitter account in 2019 applauding her for winning female judge of the year, revealed racist tweets from 2020 that included negative remarks about Lebron James and former first lady Michelle Obama. Rizzo’s tweets were discovered shortly after the fight.

“We saw her score was wrong despite the unanimous decision,” Mendoza told ESPN. “Those comments she made in the past — she might be expelled by the WBA.”

He struck down Rizzo’s actions, adding that the WBA does not support racism. 

“I don’t support any kind of racism. I believe in equality,” he said. “Sports are the only thing that brings equality into the world sometimes.”

Despite Rizzo’s controversial scorecard, the other two judges, John Mariano and David Singh, also credited Maestre as the winner, though with much closer margins.

Mendoza said that he is trying to schedule a rematch for the two fighters.