Renowned host Steve Harvey now has a spiritual successor following his infamous 2015 Miss Universe gaffe. One announcer on Saturday also crowned the wrong queen — but this time in a boxing ring.
Boxers Nina Hughes (6-1-0) and Cherneka Johnson (15-3-0) went the distance during a 10-round title fight for Hughes’ WBA women’s bantamweight belt. The match was an undercard bout for the Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. George Kambosos Jr. main event at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
Hughes entered the evening undefeated through her first six fights. Her unblemished streak appeared to remain intact when she was initially declared the winner by ring announcer Dan Hennessey. But moments later, Hennessey corrected himself and announced Johnson as the actual winner — much to the dismay of Hughes.
The ring announcer declares the wrong winner in Perth then corrects it 😳 pic.twitter.com/ze9Wxt6JaU
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 12, 2024
You can actually see the referee nearly raise Johnson’s arm during the initial announcement. He looked around confused before halfheartedly raising Hughes’ arm.
Top Rank announcer Joe Tessitore crushed Hennessey for his mistake after the match. Tessitore referred to the incident as an “absolute clown show garbage amateur hour we saw with the ring announcer.”
Joe Tess unloads on the "absolute clown show garbage amateur hour" ring announcer and gets the corrected results pic.twitter.com/d1czlIp3B1
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) May 12, 2024
The official scorecard confirmed Johnson’s victory, dealing Hughes the first loss of her professional career.
The ring announcer’s gaffe made what would have already been a bad memory for Hughes much more painful.
