What's Really Behind The Outrageous Decision Against Mykal Fox!

The look of a horrible decision.

On Saturday night, August 7th at The Armory in Minneapolis, three judges had a great opportunity to build recognition by being part of the nationally televised Gabriel Maestre vs. Mykal Fox WBA interim welterweight title bout.

Fox was a late replacement, filling in for Cody Crowley, who tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks out from the fight. Before the opening bell, Fox’s trainer/father, Troy Fox noticed that Maestre’s gloves were not properly taped. Referee Mark Nelson openly questioned how the commission had signed off on the illegal taping. Maestre’s gloves were re-taped to meet standards. 

Fox, 25, of Forestville, MD had clearly out boxed the 34-year-old highly recognized decorated amateur and two-time Olympian of Venezuelan. Fox had no problem keeping Maestre at the end of his long jab, scoring with ease during the entire title fight. Fox even landed a perfect counter left hand that dropped Maestre in the second-round. Maestre may have been aggressive in one or two rounds, but not even close enough to winning a round decisively.  The time had arrived to hear the announcement of the winner, Fox looked with confidence when he heard it was a unanimous decision. 

Judge Mariano scored it 115-112, David Singh 114-113, while Martinez-Rizzo had it, incredibly, 117-110, all for Maestre. This definitely wasn't the outcome the live crowd, television commentators and television audiences was expecting to hear. Fox clearly had a look of unbelief in his facial expression. 

Alantez Fox, brother of Mykal Fox:

"When the first score was read Mykes face twisted up immediately but I assured him that was him. The second was close too but I told him don't worry about that bro. That's you. When they read the final score, I reassured him that no one saw Maestre winning by a margin like that. When they said and still undefeated I immediately knew something was wrong. I immediately started fuming at the end when they put the camera on me I made sure it was seen that I said "This is some bullshit!!"

Boxing judge Gloria Martinez-Rizzo, who scored it 117-110 has a lot to answer for, and not just for her recent flip-flopped scorecard.  When things of this nature happens it doesn't always automatically causes the race card to be dealt. It definitely is an eye opener for many people to look further into the history of an individual. In this day and time the go to platform is social media. People seem to be attracted to social media outside of their regular professional life. Sometimes a person shows who they really are or want to be. In this case a boxing judge showed her true self. 

BoxingScene.com columnist Corey Erdman went through a series of past tweets that Martinez-Rizzo posted on the website through her personal account, many of which ranged from being racially insensitive to straight out racist. There were posts about two widely known African Americans in which she referred to Michelle Obama, the former First Lady, “monkey face,” and another telling basketball star Lebron James “go to back to the stable.”. There are many more questionable posts that Martinez-Rizzo has on her social media outlet.

That's just getting things started win it comes down to the questionable scorecard. Now it comes down to conflicts of interest. Gloria Martinez-Rizzo is the wife of Ricardo Rizzo, who works frequently with the WBA. The WBA granted Martinez-Rizzo its “Judge of the Year” award in 2019. More insightful information came out revealing that a member of Maestre’s corner, Marcelino Castillo, has ties with the WBA. 

Shortly after the lopsided results of this contest, WBA president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza issued a statement promising to conduct an investigation. Hopefully in favor of Mykal Fox an immediate rematch will be ordered.

Mykal Fox Interview