Watch boxer on Fury Ngannou card punch referee after stoppage (Video)
By Amy Kaplan
David Adeleye was not happy that his fight with the referee after his fight with Fabio Wardley was stopped in the seventh round.
The fight was called off due to a TKO and Adeleye responded by shoving the referee back and landing a bodyshot on the man.
Watch what happened here.
David Adeleye pushed the ref and hit him with a body shot because disagreed with the stoppage
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) October 28, 2023
pic.twitter.com/LLABCzAkoR
Adeleye and Wardley served as the featured bout on the prelims of the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Adeleye will likely be punished for the act, potentially fined and/or suspended by the athletic commission.
Don't know where Adeleye's career is heading but he needs to learn some respect and control himself. He didn't hurt the ref but that's not the point. Not interested in excuses like adrenaline, passion or the heat of the moment. Be professional and take your defeat.
— Shaun Brown (@shaunrbrown) October 28, 2023
Fabio Wardley with a great knockdown of David Adeleye in rd 7 and then finishes him off in the follow-up attack. Great finish. Adeleye shoves ref after a great stoppage. Bad move by Adeleye. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) October 28, 2023
David Adeleye going to get himself in bother for shoving the ref like that. He was very lucky to not get it stopped after that first knockdown. Fair play to him to continue after that- it was concussive work from Fabio Wardley
— CruelJohno (@crueljohno) October 28, 2023
Before the fight, Wardley predicted his win over Adeleye.
“See, the difference is he lists all those things, but we’ve never seen ‘em,” Wardley said during the pre-fight press conference. “They’ve never been tested. They’ve never been showcased at all. And you’ve never been in with anyone of any quality to even like touch on those things.
“You say, ‘I’m this. I’m that. I’ve got this. I’ve got that.’ But we’ve never seen it, because you’ve never been in with anyone of any worth to even test those things. You’ve been in with – not to disrespect them – but some, a few Eastern Europeans that come over to lose. Like cool, we’ve all done it. We’ve all gone through them stages of our career.”