Tik Tok sensation Salt Papi scored the biggest victory of his career on Thursday night, but all was not right in the aftermath.
The Filippino social media star defeated Beta Squad member King Kenny on the Misfits Boxing Super Card in Qatar, landing a massive third round knockout. For years, fans had clamoured to see the pair meet in the ring, with Salt Papi ultimately getting the best of the exchange.
However, the victory was marred with a slice of controversy as Kenny appeared to question the method in which he was beaten. Many fans shared his opinion, feeling that perhaps an elbow had been thrown in the final exchange.
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Salt Papi KOs King Kenny in Qatar
One of the most anticipated fights of the night on Thursday in Qatar was the long-awaited clash between two of the celebrity boxing scene’s most technically proficient boxers. King Kenny and Salt Papi’s star-power had remained relatively unaffected by multiple defeats, and hype was big heading in.
Kenny, the bigger of the two, used his jab as usual in the early part of the fight to great effect, with his brother Daley Perales leading from the corner. But Salt Papi managed to find the shots he was looking for and eventually take control.
There had been a pre-fight issue between the two teams based on number of rounds, with Kenny believing they would fight for six rounds and Papi thinking it was five. But it turns out they didn’t need all six as in the third the Filippino landed a crisp right uppercut that sent his rival flailing through the ropes.
Kenny attempted to beat the count, but after stumbling when asked to walk forward by the referee the fight was stopped. It made for a massive night for Papi, whose boxing momentum is now back with three stoppage victories on the bounce.
Fans cry foul on social media after Salt Papi vs King Kenny
The immediate aftermath of the fight generally saw viewers impressed by what had just happened for Salt Papi. That quickly changed, though, when a new angle began to go viral showing what appeared to be the winner landing an illegal elbow in the winning exchange.
Other angles appeared to indicate that it was a legal punch, with his glove making significant impact before the elbow struck. But it still caused uproar on X with users claiming that the pair should be forced to rematch.
“Seen the replay,” one eagle-eyed fan wrote. “Looks like a elbow from Salt Papi That KO win vs Kenny should get overturned.” A commenter replied: “Anyone saying that isn’t an elbow, knows nothing about boxing. That punch barely even grazed the nose.”
The incident was divisive, however, with others insisting that different angles showed a clearer vision of what had happened.
King Kenny reacts after first stoppage defeat
One man who weighed in quickly on X was the man of the hour King Kenny. After a respectful moment between the two in the ring, things seemed a bit more bitter on social media as he managed to get a look at what had happened.
“Am I bugging or is that not an elbow?” He asked in a viral tweet that was viewed over 1.3million times in just a few hours. He followed that up by complaining about the stoppage, adding: “nd I got up and i felt fine to keep fighting again, did the walk aswell? Smh.”
He wasn’t the only Beta Squad member to share a similar opinion, with his close friend Sharky coming to his defense on X as well. “Looks like an elbow to me,” the influencer wrote in another viral tweet.
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