Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 2: coin flip decides last-minute judging change

A flip of a coin has decided one of the three judges for tonight’s Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury rematch just hours before the pair are scheduled to lace up the gloves for their big heavyweight title fight.

Puerto Rico’s Gerardo Martinez, Chicago’s Patrick Morley, and Miami’s Fernando Barbosa were originally selected as the panel to score Usyk vs. Fury 2.

But Barbosa reportedly fell ill on fight week and could not make the journey to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Usyk and Fury go head to head for the WBA, WBC, and WBO titles.

Due to Barbosa’s withdrawal, Panama’s Ignacio Robles and New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld were flown in as potential replacements. Weisfeld was thought to have landed the gig, but a coin flip early Saturday afternoon has decided that Robles will be the third judge for Usyk-Fury tonight.

Barbosa’s appointment to the panel was controversial, to begin with. The American judge also serves as a broadcaster for ESPN KnockOut and a senior vice president for Disney Latin America — Disney is the parent company of ESPN. Although ESPN is not broadcasting the rematch, it has an exclusive content agreement with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which co-promotes Fury alongside Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions.

In addition to commentating on the action from ringside, he is also more directly involved with some boxing events. Barbosa is responsible for acquiring licensing rights to matches broadcast throughout Latin America, a role that involves regularly dealing with promoters to strike TV rights deals, which is a worrying business relationship for a judge to have.

Uncrowned’s Keith Idec was first with the news.

Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) defends his WBA, WBC, and WBO titles against Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) tonight at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Usyk edged a split decision over Fury to win the undisputed heavyweight title in May. The Ukrainian became the first fighter to hold all four heavyweight belts, and in the process became a two-division undisputed champion.

Uncrowned will have live round-by-round coverage of the entire card.