By Luke Furman
Marc Ramsay, the trainer of former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31KOs), is furious with referee Steve Willis, because he felt the official allowed IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) get away with a very dangerous foul without any points being penalized and without any warnings.
During the fifth round, Lemieux was hit by a vicious body shot and went down to a knee in a lot of pain. As he was down, Golovkin ran over and cracked with a punch right on the chin.
At first, it seemed like Willis was going to penalize Golovkin and give Lemieux some time to recover. The opposite happened, Willis directed Golovkin to a neutral corner and started issuing a count to Lemieux.
The Canadian puncher was eventually stopped in the eight round.
Roy Jones Jr., who was part of the HBO Pay-Per-View broadcast team, felt Golovkin dodged a bullet and recalled how he was disqualified for a similar foul when he hit Montell Griffin when he was down in their 1997 bout.
"The official really missed the call there. I think everyone saw hit. He was hit while down with a knee on the ground and there wasn't even a warning. [The punch] was right on the chin," said Ramsay said to the Montreal Journal.
"From that moment, I did not feel the same energy from David. I'm not say that David would have won the fight. Golovkin deserves his victory, but the referee missed a [a big one here]. It is a lack of professionalism and it is dangerous."
"This is the second time that we've had this nonsense from him here. Against Gabriel Rosado, David had been getting hit behind the head, after the break [and nothing happened]. This is the second time that I've have problems with Steve Willis."
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org
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