Jono Carroll feels he edged drawn World Title Final Eliminator – questions French judging
Jono Carroll believed he did enough to win last night in Sheffield and isn’t particularly happy with the judging of the bout – but the fan-friendly super feather is refusing to be too downbeat.
The Dubliner fought to a draw with Frenchman Guillaume Frenois in their IBF world title final eliminator, live on Sky Sports.
Following a bright start from Carroll, Frenois came into the bout in the second half and the fight was ruled a split-draw with 115-113 scorecards either way alongside a 114-114 verdict.
Frenois [46(12)-1(0)-1], by virtue of his higher ranking with the IBF, is in the driving seat in terms of challenging for the belt currently held by Tevin Farmer but there are plenty of things that may happen behind the scenes over the next few weeks and months.
For now, Carroll [16(3)-0-1] is happy to remain an undefeated fighter.
The 26-year-old noted how “it’s not the [result] we wanted but what the fuck can you do? It is what it is.”
“Obviously nobody wants to see a draw. We’re all competitors here. We all like to win, get the win, nobody likes a draw. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the fans, the fighters, trainers, it doesn’t matter, nobody likes to see a draw.”
“Two men go out there, we put it on the line, best man wins, best man loses.”
“I’m in good spirits. Listen, it’s not the result I wanted but I’ve still got my 0 and that’s all that matters.”
‘King Kong’ did raise a minor point, noting how one of the three judges was a Frenchman along with British and German scorers and a British referee.
This judge, Vincent Dupas, gave Frenois the fight 115-113 and Carroll pointed out that Frenois “did have a French judge, that’s what I will say, that obviously gave it to him by two rounds.”
“I felt like I did enough to win it, I felt like I at least scraped it by a round.”
“If it was that even, I think I got it by a round, I worked hard enough but that’s boxing.”
“The amount of bleedin’ head clashes, all the them [marks] here are head clashes. The ref said the first one was with a punch but I felt the head clash straight away”
The Irishman, though, didn’t want to take anything away from the recent European champion and said “but, do you know what? I take my hat off to your man. I actually didn’t think he was as good as what he was. Very tough, very strong, and he was just awkward.”
“It was a very good fight. It got the blood going and it was entertaining. You always get that in any of my fights.”
“It was a very tight fight.”
