Boxing judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo has reportedly been suspended by the WBA after controversy over a disputed scorecard she submitted on Saturday led to the revelation of several old, racist tweets about Michelle Obama and LeBron James.
‘Ok monkey face your time is gone bye bye,’ read a tweet from the ‘@GloriaRizz’ account in response to a 2018 story about the former First Lady.
‘Le Brom (sic) is so stupid that the only thing he can do is play basketball, other than that go back to the stable,’ read another tweet from October of 2020.
Rizzo, who was identified as a native Nicaraguan by the WBA, has not commented publicly about the decision.
Boxing judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo has reportedly been suspended by the WBA after controversy over a disputed scorecard she submitted on Saturday led to the revelation of several old, racist tweets about Michelle Obama and LeBron James. The tweets were unearthed Saturday by BoxingScene.com’s Corey Erdman , who found them as Rizzo was drawing criticism from boxing fans over her scorecard in the Mykal Fox-Gabriel Maestre WBA interim welterweight title fight in Minnesota. Erdman was able to identify the account, @GloriaRizz, as Rizzo’s because she was tagged in an old WBA tweet from 2019 celebrating her ‘female judge of the year’ award victory (pictured)
Rizzo (circled between the two fighters) drew criticism from boxing fans over her scorecard in the Mykal Fox-Gabriel Maestre WBA interim welterweight title fight in Minnesota
(Left) A since-deleted account purportedly belonging to Rizzo refers to Michelle Obama as a ‘monkey’. (Right) That same account tells LeBron James to ‘got back to the stable’
ESPN reported WBA president Gilberto Mendoza’s decision to suspend Rizzo for six months on Wednesday night. The WBA, one of boxing’s four major sanctioning bodies, did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for confirmation. Rizzo and Mendoza will meet in Miami on Thursday to discuss her future, ESPN reported.
‘Those comments she made in the past — she might be expelled by the WBA,’ Mendoza told ESPN.
‘I don’t support any kind of racism,’ he added. ‘I believe in equality. … Sports are the only thing that brings equality into the world sometimes.’
The account purportedly belonging to Rizzo was recently deleted, but not until after the revelation of her offending posts.
The tweets were unearthed Saturday by BoxingScene.com’s Corey Erdman, who found them as Rizzo was drawing criticism from boxing fans over her scorecard in the Mykal Fox-Gabriel Maestre WBA interim welterweight title fight in Minnesota.
Erdman was able to identify the account, @GloriaRizz, as Rizzo’s because she was tagged in an old WBA tweet from 2019 celebrating her ‘female judge of the year’ award victory.
‘Here is a selection of racist tweets from Gloria Martinez Rizzo, the judge who scored tonight’s fight between Gabriel Maestre and Mykal Fox 117-110 for Maestre,’ read the beginning of Erdman’s Twitter thread.
Maestre won a unanimous decision over Fox, who actually scored the fight’s only knockdown and was considered by many to have been the real winner of the bout.
While the other two judges had narrow victories for Maestre (115-112, 114-113), Rizzo had the budding Venezuelan prospect winning all but two of the 12 rounds for a whopping 117-110 edge.
‘How is that possible,’ exasperated announcer Brian Kenny said after the results were announced on the Fox Sports broadcast.
‘I’m stunned it was 114-113, and I thought that has to be in favor of Fox,’ Kenny added, expressing his dismay that Fox didn’t win a unanimous decision rather than the official victor, Maestre. ‘How can it even be that close?’
Mendoza agreed that Rizzo’s 117-110 card was wrong, although he didn’t seem to entirely object to Maestre’s victory.
‘We saw her score was wrong despite the unanimous decision,’ Mendoza told ESPN, which reported that he has ordered a Maestre-Fox rematch.
Fox responded shortly after the revelation of the racist Tweets.
‘Wow,’ he said, as quoted by World Boxing News. ‘I was never going to win on her card.’
Maestre (right) won a unanimous decision over Fox (left), who actually scored the fight’s only knockdown (pictured) and was considered by many to have been the real winner of the bout. While the other two judges had narrow victories for Maestre (115-112, 114-113), Rizzo had the budding Venezuelan prospect winning all but two of the 12 rounds for a whopping 117-110 edge. ‘How is that possible,’ exasperated announcer Brian Kenny said after the results were announced on the Fox Sports broadcast
Rizzo’s other tweets weren’t any less inflammatory.
She suggested killing a Black Lives Matter organizer in 2020, and routinely suggested that Joe Biden stole the presidential election from Donald Trump, whom she clearly adores.
‘You looked great,’ read a 2020 tweet from the account. ‘Shine like star our President was so cute n proud of you.’
‘Who care their opinion, President Trump looks cute dancing,’ read a 2020 tweet in response to a story about former Seinfeld cast members criticizing Trump’s on-stage dance moves.
Rizzo also demanded that US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D — New York) be deported from country.
Fox celebrated Rizzo’s suspension this week following Saturday’s controversial defeat