Back on June 27th Boxing M (KBM) held a show that featured a number of Rookie Bouts, as part of their Battle Royal tournament. Among those was a Middleweight bout between Han Song Lim (0-3-2) [임한송] and Hyun Gi Ki (0-3-1) [김현기], which resulted in a controversial split decision draw.
The controversy for the bout wasn't the scoring as such but a ruling on a knockdown in the 4th round. The incident wasn't ruled as a knockdown and essentially resulted in a draw, costing Ki what would have been a decision win, thanks to a 10-8 final round, and progress in the tournament.
The KBM have ruled that had the knockdown been called Ki would have won the bout, though they have decided that the referee's call was the right one due to how the knockdown occurred, and the situation that sent Lim to the canvas being a rather messy mix of action. They also ruled that the draw was not unfair.
However a decision was made that the referee failed to rule correctly on headclashes caused by Lim.
After deliberating the result and controversies surrounding the bout KBM have offered a rematch between the two men, and that Ki can advance to the next round of the tournament, despite being eliminated by the draw, if he wishes. Quite how this will work is a bit of a mystery, given the tournament status of the bout.
Whilst controversy in boxing is something we all talk about regularly it is nice to see that KBM have acted on a bout like this, whilst other countries would have ignored a fight between win-less fighters.
