The judges for the upcoming Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury rematch have reportedly been reshuffled 24 hours before the fight.
Puerto Rico’s Gerardo Martinez, Chicago’s Patrick Morley and Miami’s Fernando Barbosa were originally set to score the historic clash with Robert Ramirez Jr, also of Puerto Rico, picked as the referee.
But according to esteemed boxing journalist, Keith Idec, Barbosa was taken ill and didn’t fly to Riyadh.
As a result, Steve Weisfeld of New Jersey is said to have stepped in on short notice to replace him at ringside.
Weisfeld, a veteran of over 2000 fights, has judged both men before.
He submitted a 116-112 scorecard in Usyk’s favour for his shutout display against Anthony Joshua in their inaugural encounter back in September 2021.
Meanwhile, his services weren’t required when he judged Fury and Deontay Wilder‘s second and third fights in 2020 and 2021, although he had Fury ahead at the time of both stoppages.
Weisfield has largely avoided controversy during his lengthy career, which stretches all the way back to 1991.
However, he, Morely and Martinez won’t be the only ones judging Saturday’s action.
A fourth official, powered by artificial intelligence, will also submit a scorecard as part of an experiment that will not impact the result of the fight.
Announcing the news earlier this week, Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh wrote on X: “For the first time ever, an AI-powered judge will monitor the fight.
“Free from bias and human error brought to you by The Ring.
“This groundbreaking experiment, which won’t impact the official results, debuts during the biggest fight of the century, #Usyk2Fury, on December 21.”
The idea was mostly welcomed by boxing fans, who have been subjected to several dodgy decisions over the years.
In Usyk and Fury’s first fight in May, the Ukrainian edged the contest via split decision with the tight scorecards reading 115-112 to Usyk, 114-113 to Fury, and 114-113 to Usyk.
A standing eight count in the ninth round from Usyk, which was marked down as a 10-8 round on all three judges’ scorecards, proved decisive.
The three men scoring the fight that night were Spain’s Manuel Oliver Palomo, Canada’s Craig Metcalfe, and Wisconsin’s Mike Fitzgerald.
Metcalfe was the only judge to score the fight in Fury’s favour.
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