Olympic medallist Harry Garside’s professional debut has ended in anti-climatic fashion, winning via a first-round TKO as the crowd booed what looked like a premature stoppage.
The 24-year-old had dominated the opening two minutes against Sachin Mudaliar, and he had the Fijian up against the ropes near the corner with just over a minute to go.
Garside unleashed nearly 15 seconds of offence into his opponent, but when Mudaliar finally swung back was when the referee ended things.
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“You have to fight back,” the referee yelled to Mudaliar and his corner as the crowd began to boo.
An irate Mudaliar didn’t wait around for the decision.
“He was tough, he showed up to fight, and he was still fine but he needed to throw shots,” Garside said afterwards.
“When I have two hands I’ll fight him with both to get a rematch,” he said – mentioning that in his second-last sparring session he had injured his left.
“I’m ready for a big year next year.”
On commentary, Jeff Fenech was apoplectic at the stoppage.
“These referees, we need to sit down and talk to them and look at it,” Fenech said.
“Of course he wasn’t throwing punches back, but there wasn’t one part of this where he showed that he was hurt.
“He was not hurt at all.”
Fenech praised the talent of Garside but said the farcical ending has robbed viewers of seeing his full ability in his pro debut.
“It cost him a little bit of credibility,” Fenech said of Garside’s win.
“What I think he done today, he tried too hard to impress us,” he said, referring to the number of punches thrown.
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