‘There’s been question marks over a few Katie Taylor decisions’ – Joe Gallagher calls for fair judging ahead of Natasha Jonas rematch

Joe Gallagher has called for the world’s best judges to be put in place to ensure there is no controversy surrounding the scoring of Katie Taylor’s world title defense against his charge Nathasa Jonas [9(7)-1(1)-1].

In what appears a seed planting and get under Team Taylor’s skin move, Jonas’ trainer has raised the issue of judging just weeks shy of the May 1 Olympic re-run.

Gallagher claims he doesn’t want a repeat of the ‘contentious’ scoring seen in Jonas versus Teri Harper and Taylor [17(6)-0] versus Delfine Persoon one.

As a result, the Manchester coach of Sligo heritage revealed he will pay close attention to judge selection and will object to any selections he doesn’t like.

“There’s been question marks over a few Katie Taylor decisions and Natasha Jonas’ decision, so we want the best judges that the governing bodies have at ringside,” Gallagher told Sky Sports.

“We want everyone to talk about how good a fight this was and not about contentious scorecards again. We’ll be looking to know who the judges are assigned to the fight and if there is any that we’re not happy with then we will raise an objection with the British Boxing Board of Control, and the governing bodies.

“We’d like to know who they are, the sooner the better.”

No doubt both sides will pay heed to who adjudicates come the eagerly anticipated rematch, it’s normal practice.

However, you get the impression mind games specialist, Gallagher brought up the officials just so he could point out Jonas was hard done against Terri Harper as well as the initial controversy surrounding Taylor’s first victory over Delfine Persoon.

The former coach of Matthew Macklin and very vocal trainer of Scott Quigg for his massive PPV fight with Carl Frampton certainly did bring it up, suggesting ‘everyone’ felt the undisputed lightweight world champion and undisputed Irish great lost against the Belgian in New York.

He also called for the fight to be scored on it’s merits not on reputation or precieved star quality.

“If you look at Natasha Jonas and Terri Harper, everyone all over the world thinks Natasha won that night, apart from two people,” said Gallagher. Then you’ve seen Katie Taylor vs Delfine Persoon, everyone all round the world thinks Persoon won the first one, but Katie Taylor got it.

“The eyes of the world are watching this and I can’t have Natasha Jonas coming out of this fight, feeling hard done by, like she already has been done with the Terri Harper fight.

“They’ve both been involved in fights with contentious scoring. We’ve got to make sure that isn’t the thing for this fight, and the right girl deserves it on the night”

“Not what she’s done in the past or what she has now, or she’s come in the ring as a champion. Whoever has done the best, score for the shots landing, and let’s concentrate on the fight.

“You need all bases covered, even down to the judges, but the referee as well. The referees play a huge part. They are very cute in who they can say ‘break’ to, who they can make push back, give people rest time.

“The eyes of the world are watching this and I can’t have Natasha Jonas coming out of this fight, feeling hard done by, like she already has done with the Terri Harper fight.”

There is no doubt some of the not so thinly veiled jibes will catch Taylor’s attention but her manager Brian Peters and Promoter Eddie Hearn have both worked alongside Gallagher over the years and will advise against taking the bait.