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Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J. – Sakaria Lukas (25-1-1, 17 KOs) came in on late notice and felt that he was robbed of a knockdown that would have given him a ten round decision win over Olympian Tugstsogt Nyambayar (12-2-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday night.
The fight was very competitive, but there was a key moment during the eight round – where Lukas connected with a punch on the inside and Nyambayar went down.
However, referee Eddie Claudio decided to rule it as a slip – stating afterwards that it appeared to him that Nyambayar was attempting to throw a punch and slipped. Despite being shown video replays, he refused to acknowledge that Lukas’ punch had landed.
The scores were 96-94 for Lukas, 96-94 for Nyambayar and 95-95 for a draw.
If the referee would have ruled it as a knockdown, then Lukas would have won on the scorecards.
“Everyone saw it was a knockdown that should have given me a split-decision win. I fought my heart out and I deserved the win. I took the fight on short notice, but I was ready to win. I believe I won the fight, but I can’t do anything about the decision. We had the fans behind us, they know what happened,” Lukas said.
“I want to face the winner of the main event. This was an amazing opportunity for me and I showed up.”
Nyambayar disagreed with the Lukas’ take on the situation and felt that he did enough to pull off a win.
“I thought I won the fight and I didn’t believe it was a knockdown. It was a hard fight, especially against an opponent on short notice. My goal is to fight for the world title again,” Nyambayar said.