MOSCOW, October 8 (R-Sport) - Russian heavyweight boxer Alexander Povetkin’s agent Tuesday urged the sport’s ruling bodies to penalize a referee for his performance in overseeing his client’s crushing defeat to four-belt world champion Wladimir Klitschko over the weekend.
Povetkin was knocked down four times by Klitschko, who won unanimously by 119-104 on all three scorecards in Sunday’s title fight in Moscow.
Ukraine’s Klitschko was deducted one point for excessive holding during the fight and his repeated clinching drew jeers from the crowd at the Olimpiisky Sports Complex.
The protest against referee Luis Pabon aims to ensure “this referee never again oversees a high-level fight,” agent Dmitry Ivanov told RIA Novosti’s sports affiliate R-Sport.
“During the fight, he didn’t implement any measures against Klitschko to make it a clean, fair and entertaining fight,” he said.
Ivanov said he and Povetkin’s promoter Sauerland Event would jointly draw up a letter of protest to various sanctioning bodies, but stressed nobody was demanding the result of the fight be overturned.
“Obviously, Klitschko won,” Ivanov said.
Klitschko improved to a 61-3 career record with the win, while the previously unbeaten Povektin dropped to 26-1.
