Krzysztof Glowacki to appeal loss to Mairis Briedis

If you didn’t know by know, we had a pretty nutty fight this past weekend in a World Boxing Super Series’ semifinal match between Krzysztof Glowacki and Mairis Briedis. To quickly recap, in the second round Glowacki would throw an illegal punch to the back of Briedis’ head, and Briedis would retaliate with an elbow to the chin (costing him a point deduction).

Briedis would then score a legitimate knockdown of Glowacki, but the two fighters would slug it out well past the bell soon thereafter. The ringing bell basically went ignored like King’s Landing trying to surrender to an enraged Targaryen, and the fire and brimstone ensued as the referee never stepped in to halt the action.

So during that late exchange after the bell, Briedis would drop Glowacki again, officially ruled a knockdown, and Glowacki would never really recover, getting immediately stopped once the third round began.

The whole thing was an epic, chaotic mess, and Team Glowacki don’t intend on letting the official result slide without some push back. So now RingTV reports that Glowacki and his team will be filing an appeal of the official result, hoping to have the fight overturned.

“It is hard to accept such a situation,” Glowacki told The Ring through Jacek Szelagowski of Knockout Promotions on Sunday. “I would never expect an elbow. I have never fought anyone who would fight like that. I was not interested in acting. I wanted to continue and win this fight with classic boxing.

“The elbow was really strong and clear to the chin. I did not know what happened. I do not remember a lot after that. I did not hear anything. I was trying to take my chance in a direct war.”

The direct war didn’t work out so well for Glowacki, obviously, but he certainly was no saint in this whole situation. In fact he sort of kicked off the dirty fighting with that blatant rabbit punch that Briedis took exception to. The rest of it was squarely on referee Robert Byrd, who completely mishandled the situation.

Here’s what Glowacki’s manager, Andrew Wasilewski, had to say about their plans to file an appeal:

“The situation is difficult for everybody; for the tournament, for federations and everybody around this fight. If anyone wants to build respect for boxing we must be against such a situation and try to find a clever solution. I read that experts, fighters and fans from all over the world are sure that it should be a no-contest or disqualification.”

Now, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t blame Glowacki’s team for seeking an official overturning of the results, but I am just not optimistic for them. For one, the result would presumably have to be overturned by a Latvian commission, whom I doubt would be inclined to do that to their hometown hero. Secondly, I doubt Glowacki’s team will get much support from the WBSS itself, who are probably more than happy to keep their tournament moving along with a finals match between Briedis and Yuniel Dorticos.

If the WBSS had to have a do-over, that would mean another fight card with more purse money to pony up for (which considering the multiple reports of the WBSS’ financial struggles, I doubt they have the budget for), and would delay their finals match which is currently slated for the fall. Now, of course, this won’t mean much to the average fan, who would gladly tune-in for a rematch and probably wouldn’t mind if the finals got pushed back a bit, but the people who have to front the money will care.

So far I’ve yet to see any word from the WBSS even suggesting they want the fight ruled a no contest, but it will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out. We’ll keep you posted...