Controversial Cut Gives Timothy Bradley Win Over Nate Campbell

Timothy Bradley took a controversial technical knockout victory over Nate Campbell in Saturday night's WBO light welterweight title fight in Rancho Mirage, Calif., winning when the referee appeared to misinterpret the cause of a cut over Campbell's left eye.

The deep gash was causing blood to get into Campbell's eye, and as a result, the ringside doctor made the correct decision to stop the fight. But referee David Mendoza made the surprising ruling that a Bradley punch caused Campbell's cut, even though TV replays seemed to show that it was actually an accidental head butt that opened the wound. That would mean the fight should have been ruled a no contest.

Mendoza said afterward that he saw the fighters' heads collide, but he added that "Both of them were head butting each other," and that he thought it was a Bradley punch that did the real damage to Campbell's eye. The replays, however, showed Mendoza got it wrong.

"This is wrong!" Campbell screamed in the ring after the fight. "This is wrong!"

Campbell and Bradley yelled at each other in the ring, as did Bradley promoter Gary Shaw and Campbell promoter Don King. But Bradley noted in the ring after the fight that he had been beating Campbell throughout and likely would have beaten Campbell without the head butt.

"It didn't even matter," Bradley said. "He was going to get beaten tonight anyway."

Bradley improved his record to 25-0. Campbell fell to 33-6-1.