It was the ding -- or lack thereof -- heard 'round the Minnesota boxing world.
The match between friends and elite boxers Joey (Minnesota Ice) Abell and Raphael (The Silencer) Butler was much-anticipated. Their Friday night fight at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis was billed as the first Minnesota heavyweight championship since 1977, when Duane Bobick took out Scott LeDoux with two knockdowns in the eighth round.
Friday's bout didn't last that long, but there was no shortage of punches. When the bell signifying the end of the first round apparently went unheard by the referee and Abell, the latter threw a post-round punch that put Butler's lights out. That ignited a melee inside the ring that involved both fighters' trainers.
"I've never seen a situation like this," Ben Tighe, of Fargo, N.D., author of the Upper Midwest boxing blog Fistic Mystic, said Saturday. "I was definitely shocked by the way it ended."
Tighe, who was sitting in the ringside press row, said it went down like this:
Abell appeared to be getting the better of Butler, and had just knocked him down. Butler was getting back up and clearing his head before rejoining the fight when the bell rang -- sort of. Just about everyone inside Target Center heard it -- except for two of the three who mattered most.
Referee Bobby Brunette waved the fighters back together, despite the protests of the screaming crowd and Butler's trainers, who were pounding the fighter's chair against the ring in an attempt to get the referee's attention. Brunette gave the signal to fight, but before he realized his mistake and dove in to break up the fighters, Abell delivered the fateful punch, crumpling Butler.
Butler's trainer, Danny O'Connor, dove into the ring.
"O'Connor charged at Abell and Brunette and was looking for anyone he could throw punches at," Tighe said. "He had just watched his friend and meal ticket get knocked out cold, and that can only happen so many times in a career."
Abell's trainer, Ron Lyke, then jumped into the ring to defend his fighter, while Abell, still visibly confused, tried to figure out what had happened.
Butler, meanwhile, remained unconscious.
"O'Connor was looking for someone to kill, and Lyke was trying to protect Abell," Tighe said. "Lyke got knocked down, and to save him from being trampled, Abell laid his body over Lyke. You could almost call it a mob scene. It was very violent and crazy."
As soon as it began, it ended, Tighe said, and Abell was disqualified for throwing the punch after the bell rang. Later that night, however, that ruling was changed and the fight was ruled a "no contest," or a scratch.
Butler later told minnesotaboxing.com that he heard the bell and was turning back to his corner when he was hit. Abell said he never heard the bell.
Afterward, the fighters hugged and agreed to a rematch, the website reported.
There's no word on whether anyone was injured in the brawl. Minneapolis police spokesman Jesse Garcia said officers were not called to the scene. Tighe said, it appears no one was at fault, except, perhaps, for a noisy arena and a not-so-diligent bell-ringer.
"I heard the bell, but not everyone did. I think it has a lot to do with where you were. Obviously Joey Abell and the referee, Bobby Brunette, didn't hear it," Tighe said. "I don't think you can blame either of them. When it was clear they didn't hear the bell, that bell ringer should have been pounding on it. They needed to ring that bell loud and long."
Abby Simons • 612-673-4921
