Bruce Carrington (13-0, 8 KOs) won a controversial ten round majority decision agaisnt Sulaiman Segawa (17-5-1, 6 KOs) in featherweight action on Friday night at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The New York fans at ringside booed the decision loudly, which was surprising, given that Carrington is from there and has a large fanbase. On social media, fans complained nonstop about Carrington being given a gift decision.
This was a classic textbook hometown decision in favor of the New Yorker Carrington, who was given a decision that he didn’t deserve. At best, Carrington fought well enough to win three rounds because he was getting dominated by the more skilled and busier Segawa.
The highly ranked #1 WBA and #2 WBC Carrington came into the fight as a heavy favorite but was outboxed and out-punched by the more experienced Segawa in virtually every round of the fight.
The scores were 95-95, 97-93, 97-93. Boxing247 stored it for Segawa 99-91. It was that one-sided. The wide scores by the judges that had it 97-93 x 2 were troubling because there’s no chance that Carrington deserved to win, and certainly not by those bizarre scores. Even ESPN’s Tim Bradley was stunned by the scores turned in by the judges.
Segawa, 33, hurt Carrington with a scorching left to the head in round two and then unloaded on him with an eight-punch combo that had him looking ready to go. At the end of the round, Carrington walked back to his corner on shaky legs.
The misery continued for Carrington in rounds three and four as Segawa easily evaded his shots and landed looping punches. Segawa immediately answered the shots that Carrington did land in twos and threes.
Carrington rarely threw punches after the fifth round because he didn’t like the power shots that Segawa would tag him with immediately. In the tenth, Carrington tried to mount a comeback but missed everything he threw in the round. Segawa landed the better shots and looked like the clear winner at the end of the fight.
Top Rank has two options after this poor performance by Carrington:
- Set up a rematch to clear up the controversy
- Slow down Carringtion’s progression
