Everybody makes mistakes, but the internet is not always forgiving. This was the case of former U.S marine fighter and ring announcer Lt. Dan Hennessey after he announced the wrong winner at a bout in Perth, Australia.
The match, a high-stakes battle for the WBA bantamweight title, was headlined as the co-main event for the Vasiliy Lomachenko vs George Kambosos fight. After 10 intense rounds, with Cherneka dominating her opponent, Hennessy’s erroneous announcement of the winner shocked the commentary team.
The infamous event took place on Saturday after he announced Hughes as the winner by majority decision. After hugs and celebrations by Hughes’ team, Hennessey realized his mistake and had to call the fighter to reconvene at the center of the ring. He then went on to re-announce the winner from the scoreboard, giving Johnson her well-deserved victory.
Although he owned up to his mistakes and apologized to the fighters, the incident earned Hennessey a lot of hate on social media. The incident led to a savage remark from ESPN’s Joe Tessitore “absolute clown show garbage amateur hour we saw with the ring announcer”. The ex-marine took to his social media page to publicly apologize and take full responsibility for his error the day after the event. Unintentionally, he fumbled Nina’s last name.
“I own it. It’s on me. I take full responsibility for the Chernika Johnson V Nina Houghs controversy. Not the judges, not the sanctioned body.Me. I have apologized to all involved and now I apologize to you. I am sorry for what happened.Again I own it and can only try and do better next time. Not my best day in the office. I guess all the s****y comments and socials I have coming. Again I am crushed and sorry for my s***storm of a performance. You all deserved better. Sorry again.”
However, the apology and name error seemed to enrage people. Hennessey couldn’t take the backlash anymore and admitted that it had been affecting his mental health. So, after 18 years of ring service, Hennessey called it quits and hung up his microphone. He mentioned this in a Facebook post.
“I love all the support from everyone. Thank you all for the kind words. Unfortunately, the worldwide backlash is absolutely incredible, and it’s affecting my mental health to a degree where I will have one more show ever. I am doing this show because I am still a man of my word and promised Sam Rapira that I would do it because he is a great mate and I refuse to leave him hanging. I love and will keep in touch with all my friends from around the world. Thank you. No longer the world’s punching bag. I’m out.”
The winner-turned-loser, Nina Hughes, was pissed by the misread announcement. She admitted to feeling cheated and called the night “ the dirty side of the sport I love”. But she seems to be taking her loss in good strides. Hughes has promised workout a rematch clause for another fight with Johnson.
