Only three years ago he had been the third man in the ring for Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce’s all-British showdown at the Church House in London. But yesterday evening he was officiating influencer boxing.
This comes after John-Lewis was relegated from a British Boxing Board of Control A* referee down to A, following his controversial scorecard for the Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall clash last year. John-Lewis inexplicably scored the fight in Taylor’s favour at 114-111 despite most seeing that Catterall had won it.
Many believe the punishment wasn’t strict enough, but the Brit felt hard done by and chose to relinquish his BBBofC license in order to join the lesser-known British & Irish Boxing Authority (BIBA), setting him up for an appearance at Misfits Boxing 5.
“Anthony said, ‘sorry ref’ and afterwards he explained that he thought the Italian was going to hit him, so he instinctively tried to get in there first. No disrespect to other referees but some would have gone down. I am a big strong guy, and I can take a dig but that was no little cuff, it was bang on the button, flat in my face.”
Also chiming in on the incident, Joshua added: “I was aware of what happened. When there are two blokes fighting, you’re in the mode. I thought Leo was going to hit me and it’s protect yourself at all times. As soon as I saw him flinch, I thought ‘I’ve got to get to him first’, but the referee was there! I thought ‘if I hit the wrong person, that isn’t what I want to do!’.”