Andrea Botez’ final boxing round effort against Dina Belenkaya during the Mogul Chessboxing Championship was a cause for controversy following the event, and today the event’s organizers addressed the situation, admitting a mistake.
Botez, who went into the last round of boxing knowing she needed a knockout in order to win, came out swinging for the fences. Belenkaya had played the chess portion of the event brilliantly, and Botez was just a few moves away from an almost guaranteed checkmate.
But they needed to box one more time.
Repeatedly getting downed, Belenkaya was doing everything in her power to stall and avoid Botez, but the younger Botez sister somehow managed to repeatedly knock down the Woman Grandmaster.
During the event itself, it appeared as though the hard-fought effort by Botez wasn’t quite enough to defeat Belenkaya in the allotted 90 seconds of boxing time. As the two went back to the chessboard, Belenkaya claimed victory.
However, in a post to social media today Ludwig and Mogul Moves acknowledged a failure by the boxing referee to call what should have been a clear TKO in favor of Botez, who had knocked down Belenkaya three times.
While Belenkaya went home last night with the belt, the unsatisfactory result was a cause for concern for Ludwig and his team. Even though they didn’t reverse the decision, they are giving Botez a much-deserved title belt, after she exhibited one of the strongest boxing performances of the evening and one that should have led to a victory.
“After talking to the officials we thought this was the best path forward,” Ludwig said. “Impossible to rewind the clock but always best to do right when possible.”
It didn’t take long for Botez to respond to the news on Twitter herself. In excitement, she posted in all caps “double win let’s go.”
Published: Dec 12, 2022 11:56 pm