A ring announcer has quit following the intense "worldwide backlash" following a blunder he recently made in the ring.
Ring announcer “Lieutenant” Dan Hennessey has given up his entire career after he mistakenly announced the wrong fighter as the winner during the George Kambosos vs Vasiliy Lomachenko card on Sunday in Perth, Australia. You can see the moment below:
Following the WBA bantamweight title fight, which saw England’s Nina Hughes take on Australia’s Cherneka Johnson, Hennessey took to the ring and declared Hughes as the winner 95-95, 96-94, 98-92.
However, after the fighter and her team had finished their celebrations, both competitors were pulled back to the center of the ring and, in a wild turn of events, the victory was then handed over to Johnson.
In a video, which was posted to X by Sky Sports Boxing, the ring announcer can be seen making the first announcement before telling the referee to gather the two women back into the middle and re-grab their wrists.
Then, without providing an explanation as to what just happened, the ring announcer starts recalling the scores once again, but this time, correctly announces Johnson as the winner of the match, much to everyone's surprise.
"This sort of thing literally lives in my nightmares," wrote one user, while another added: "The way he went about rectifying it was odd ...as if nothing happened and just started reading. He could've apologised to fans and fighters and informed them a mistake has occurred [sic]."
A third agreed, stating: "I don’t understand why he didn’t announce that there was a mistake then read the proper results out."
Others even called for a "rematch," with this user writing: "This is a disgrace! Has to be rematch ordered."
And it wasn't fans that were just frustrated with the blunder.
"Is this guy for real?" commentator Joe Tessitore said on the US ESPN broadcast to which his offsider, Hall of Fame boxer Tim Bradley responded: "I’m dead."
"Is this guy, Lieutenant Dan Hennessey, for real?” Tessitore questioned again.
"Get this dude up out of here man," Bradley added.
As the backlash continued, the ring announcer took to social media to apologize for his behavior.
"I own it. It’s all on me," he wrote. "I have apologised to all involved and now I apologise 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."
But days later, as the backlash continued to flood in, Fox Sports reported that Hennessey issued another statement, this time declaring that he was hanging up his microphone for good.
"I love all the support from everyone. Thank you all for the kind words.
"Unfortunately the worldwide backlash is absolutely incredible and it’s effecting [sic] my mental health to a degree where I will have 1 more show ever,” he wrote. "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," he concluded.
It's not clear what the former ring announcer will go on to do next, but it looks like he's done with boxing for now.
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