American WBO flyweight champion Anthony Olascuaga has petitioned the WBO to turn his October 14th bout against Jonathan Gonzalez into a technical knockout (TKO) victory. This Monday, the two fighters competed on the undercard of the Nakatani-Freshmart event but saw their match cancelled early as Gonzalez suffered a cut that left him unable to continue. As a doctor had ruled Gonzalez to be able to fight prior after checking on the cut, Olascuaga’s team argues that Gonzalez quit which should have made Olascuaga win by stoppage.

In the petition sent to the WBO, Anthony Olascuaga’s (7-1, 5 KO’s) team argued their belief that the match with Puerto Rican contender Jonathan Gonzalez (28-3-1, 14 KO’s) should have been ruled a TKO win in favor of Olascuaga. Rudy Hernandez, Olascuaga’s trainer and manager, further drove home the fact that the presiding doctor of the match had deemed Gonzalez fit to continue after examining the cut he sustained during an accidental headbutt by Anthony Olascuaga.

“In the first round of the fight at 1:10 [left in the round] there was an unintentional headbutt which caused a cut on Gonzalez’s left eye,” Hernandez’ argument to the WBO states according to The Ring’s Jake Donovan. “[Referee] Robert Hoyle called the ringside doctor to check the cut. [A]fter inspecting said cut he advised [Hoyle] that Gonzalez could continue to fight. The contest resumed and Gonzalez kept fighting for another 25 seconds approximately.

“[During] a clinch, he decided not to continue and the referee… stopped the fight. Since he did not want to continue after the doctor advised that he was OK to continue my boxer Olascuaga should have been declared the winner by TKO. Instead, the supervisor of the fight and the Japanese Boxing Commission (JBC) representative Mr. Tsuyoshi Yasukochi advised the referee that the fight should be declared a No-Decision.

“We would like to respectfully ask your organization to review and investigate the outcome of this fight and overturn the decision to a TKO win for Olascuaga.”

The Olascuaga-Gonzalez match concerned a flyweight (112 lbs) title bout which saw Olascuaga defend his WBO title against former world champion Jonathan Gonzalez―thus the WBO has some say in the matter.

The WBO is now expected to make a decision on Olascuaga’s petition following a thorough review of the matter, which will likely include the sanctioning body contacting the supervisor, Japanese Boxing Commission (JBC) representative Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, who according to Team Olascuaga’s letter had advised the referee to declare the fight a no-contest¹/no-decision.

However, as injuries sustained by accidental headbutts would certainly suffice as a valid reason for the contest being ruled a no-contest, there is not much grounds for Team Olascuaga to win their case except for the emphasis on Gonzalez quitting.

This in itself is a tricky matter, as while the ringside doctor had reportedly deemed Gonzalez fit to fight, the cut could have been more aggravated even within the same round. The argument that Gonzalez stopped fighting, which in boxing could be seen as a fighter quitting, could have resulted in a TKO decision had JBC representative Yasukoshi not made the decision to rule the fight a no-contest.

Perhaps Yasukoshi’s decision had been made on prioritizing a rematch between the two where neither fighter suffered from any injury. It therefore could have been a method to preserve the integrity of the fight by not allowing Anthony Olascuaga to claim an easy victory. Gonzalez’ own resume and ability were likely taken into account, as the Puerto Rican contender is a former world champion with more than triple the amount of fights than Olascuaga on his record.

The decision by Jonathan Gonzalez to allegedly quit could also be construed as the fighters’ own attempt to protect himself from further damage. While there are arguments to be made for Gonzalez deemed a “quitter” ― given recent examples of fighters such as Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KO’s) fighting on despite suffering a similar injury during his title bout against Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO’s) earlier this year, it can also be argued that there would have been no point for Gonzalez to fight with such a handicap and sustain more damage than needed.

Either way, it will fall on the WBO to rule on this matter, with a decision expected to be made either next week, or later this month depending on the sanctioning body’s timeframe in assessing this matter in full.

1. A fight is declared a no-contest when an accidental event or an external factor prevents the fight from continuing in its early stages (usually before the completion of 4 rounds). Common reasons for a no-contest include accidental fouls (like a headbutt) or situations beyond the control of the fighters (e.g., a ring malfunction, or severe weather in an outdoor event). In this case, the fight is essentially nullified, and no winner or loser is declared. ↩︎