Last Saturday night at the Allianz Cloud in Milan was a mix of highs and lows. The highly anticipated event organized by Edoardo Germani’s TAF, which marked the return of boxing to Mediaset channels, saw great public attendance and thrilled spectators with the fiery clash between Paolo Bologna and Damiano Falcinelli, as well as the formidable KO delivered by Jonathan Kogasso. However, two serious refereeing mistakes irreversibly tarnished the undercard of the event. The FPI (Italian Boxing Federation) has all the tools to minimize such occurrences, which harm Italian boxing: the time has come to take action!
In the first bout of the main card, Mohamed Elmaghraby was gifted the victory after a perfectly timed right hand from Stiven Leonetti opened a deep cut near his left eye. Referee Marco Marzuoli mistakenly attributed the injury to a head clash, an interpretation that led to an early reading of the scorecards instead of the technical KO that should have been awarded.
The following fight also ended in controversy. Francesco Paparo started brilliantly, displaying top-tier speed and power, but after knocking down Nicola Henchiri in the second round, he landed a right hand to the face while his opponent was on his knees. Incredibly, referee Sauro Di Clementi awarded a KO victory despite the blatant foul.
Such incidents leave a bitter taste and are highly detrimental to those hoping for a revival of the Noble Art in Italy. A casual viewer witnessing such scenes may easily conclude that boxing matches are predetermined, and that the fighter favored by business interests will be aided by any means necessary—a strong disincentive to return to the arena for future events.
So, what can be done? No one has a magic wand, and expecting the Federation to eliminate all controversy would be naive—especially considering that favoritism toward promoters’ preferred fighters is, unfortunately, a recurring reality in rings across the globe. However, a couple of solutions could help mitigate these dynamics, reducing their frequency and impact.
The first step is to take swift disciplinary action against referees responsible for blatant and significant errors. We want to clarify that this article is not a witch hunt, nor an attack on the professionalism or integrity of Marzuoli and Di Clementi, whose good faith we do not question.
Anyone involved in sports knows that refereeing mistakes are “part of the game,” just like errors made by other participants. A boxer might mistime a dodge, a trainer might give poor advice between rounds, and a promoter might miscalculate ticket sales. It would be illogical to expect a referee to never misinterpret an incident in the ring.
However, what all these errors have in common is that those responsible inevitably face consequences. The boxer gets hit, the trainer sees his fighter struggle, the promoter suffers financial losses—so it is only fair that a referee, if responsible for a bad night, is suspended from officiating title fights for a period proportional to the severity of their mistakes.
There is also another tool gaining traction worldwide that has already corrected several poor refereeing decisions: instant replay. This system allows reviewing controversial moments via a monitor at ringside, enabling officials to rectify potential errors even during the match.
Had such technology been available last Saturday, Stiven Leonetti would have been declared the winner by technical KO, and Nicola Henchiri would have won by disqualification. In both cases, the replay would have shown the referee and the event commissioner the undeniable flaws in the initial decisions.
Therefore, our appeal to the Italian Boxing Federation is to act quickly and not miss the train of technological and regulatory progress that other countries have already boarded. Meritocracy in refereeing and the immediate introduction of technological aids in our boxing events are essential ingredients to ensure that the current wave of enthusiasm in our gyms does not go to waste, and that Italian boxing regains its former prestige.