The RAC Arena announcer did not have a good day on Sunday.
The scene was reminiscent of when Steve Harvey crowned the wrong Miss Universe in 2015, or the “Moonlight” debacle at the Oscars in 2017. It was rough.
Cherneka Johnson defeated reigning WBA bantamweight champion Nina Hughes by majority decision on Sunday in Perth, Australia. But when ring announcer Dan Hennessey, a former United States Marine, stepped up to announce her as the winner, he completely dismissed the delivery. That made for a very confusing scene in the ring.
Hennessey misread the scorecards when he made his announcement, and he accidentally declared Hughes the winner. Suddenly, her arm rose in the air and the 41-year-old started celebrating.
But quite quickly he corrected his mistake as if nothing had happened. He read the scores again, apparently correctly the second time, and Johnson’s arm was raised in the air. That confused Hughes and the broadcast announcers incredibly.
Just watch the scene unfold:
ESPN’s Joe Tessitore blasted the “absolute clown show garbage amateur hour” and also announced from Hennessey, trying to explain to viewers in the US what had actually happened.
Joe Tess unloads the ring announcer on the “absolute clown show garbage amateur hour” and gets the corrected results pic.twitter.com/d1czlIp3B1
— CJ Fogler’s account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 12, 2024
The mistake wasn’t Hennesseey’s only mistake that night either. He also messed up the scorecards for the Pedro Guevara vs. Andrew Moloney fight earlier in the evening. The problem for him is apparently nothing new.
Even though she was briefly robbed of the celebration and nearly everyone involved was confused, Johnson still achieved her victory. In theory, that’s all that really matters.
