Maurice Harris Says He Was Victim of Rabbit Punching

NEW YORK (June 9, 2011) – Boxing 360 has made a request to the International Boxing Federation for a review of the May 27^th IBF Heavyweight Box-Off between its fighter, Maurice “Sugar Moe” Harris, and Tony “The Tiger” Thompson,” which was shown live on ESPN Friday Night Fights from Reno Events Center in Nevada.

Harris (24-15-2, 10 KOs), rated No. 6 by the IBF at that time Harris was stopped in the third round by No. 7 Thompson (36-2, 24 KOs), who moved up to No. 2 in the rankings and now gets a shot at top rated “Fast” Eddie Chambers (36-2, 18 KOs) with the winner becoming the IBF mandatory title challenger.

A review of Thompson-Harris revealed that Harris was the victim of more than 20 illegal rabbit punches in the second and third rounds. After the fight Harris complained about his equilibrium was off, along with his arms and legs being heavy and tired, after he was floored in the second round by a Thompson right-hook that landed behind Maurice’s head. Thompson belted Harris behind the head on numerous occasions but referee Vic Drakulich failed to issue a single warning.

“We believe the referee did a very poor job and Maurice never had a fair fighting chance because of all the rabbit punches,” Boxing 360 Founder/CEO Mario Yagobi explained. “My job is to protect our fighters. We just want the IBF, boxing media and fans to look at what happened and then draw their own conclusions. There’s a reason Maurice fought the way he did and that was the direct result of the referee not doing his job.”

Here is a link to the second and third rounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjXi5_mmYg&feature=related

Other members of Boxing 360’s stable include USBA heavyweight champion Maurice “Sugar Moe” Harris, WBC #3 super bantamweight Leon “Hurry Up” Moore, former IBF super middleweight champion Alejandro “Naco” Berrio, WBC Caribbean & NY State super middleweight champion Lennox “2 Sharpe” Allen, NY State champion welterweight Danny Sostre, Dominican lightweight champion Eudy “AK47” Bernardo, KO king Tyrone Brunson, Nick “Hands of Gold” Casal, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano, middleweight prospect DonYil Livingston, Joshua “The Juice” Harris, Emad Ali, Mike Mollo, “King” David Estrada and Angel “Toro” Hernandez.