Refereeing is a thankless job under the best circumstances, but one official was pushed past his limit Friday.
At a Shuan Boxing event in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Angel Cruz scored a second-round TKO of Julio de Jesus, a result that turned out to be only the beginning of the action.
A visibly agitated de Jesus walked over to the referee afterward and struck him with a stiff sucker punch. Though the referee was mostly unharmed, he turned toward de Jesus’ corner before lunging forward and attempting to retaliate with a punch of his own.
Watch the strange sequence below.
Referee got sucker punched for stopping a fight and he swung back pic.twitter.com/xT1g0wC2Vt
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) June 29, 2024
The stoppage of the bout came after Cruz landed a powerful overhand right that badly rocked de Jesus, prompting the referee to step in. Cruz had been the aggressor for the majority of the contest, which may have factored into the referee’s decision.
De Jesus suffered his seventh straight loss dating back to 2019, a stretch that also includes a previous TKO loss to Cruz.
Watch the full fight below.
