The announcer broke up the match as boxing once again pretended to be perfect

The way it works these days is this: someone messes up, the world jumps at the mistake so that the mistake can be passed on, someone apologizes, someone suffers, and then when someone has revealed how much this suffering is, everyone backs off and tries to gain the same attitude with their apology as they did with their initial and cruel criticism.

This is something we see on the internet every day, sadly, but it’s even more fun to see when it happens in a sport like boxing, which has absolutely no light of compassion or skill. Sure, that anyone in the game should be held to any kind of standard is funny enough, however for the host of events to be vilified for reading something wrong only serves to highlight the danger of people jumping into the streets and trying to react to that. everything that happens in the world.

That does not mean that the faux pas of Lt. Dan Hennessey last weekend is easy to forget; the truth is, it isn’t. But in a game filled with far bigger problems than the MC calling the wrong winner, you wonder why the anger at the game was so intense afterwards. Was it because so many people cared about the embarrassment of Nina Hughes, the woman wrongly declared the winner following her fight with Cherneka Johnson? Or was it because a clip of personal embarrassment guarantees a lot of views on the Internet and because there are not enough ways to tell the world that a man is bad at his job?

Regardless, Hennessey, due to the outrage that followed, decided to call it quits on his 18-year career as an MC. Writing on social media, he said his final fight night will take place in New Plymouth and after that he is done.

“I love all the support from everyone,” Hennessey said. “Thank you all for your kind words. Unfortunately, global regression is both dramatic and effective [affecting] my mental health to the extent that I will have another show. I am doing this program because I am still an honest man and I promised Sam Rapira (the promoter) that I will do it because he is a great partner and I refuse to leave him hanging.

“I love them and I will keep in touch with all my friends around the world. Thank you. No more worldly punching bag. I’m out.”

In the grand scheme of things, it seems absurd; both the initial reaction and Hennessy’s decision to call it quits. However, that’s the problem with viral events: everything is exaggerated and blown out of proportion to spread the virus.

The truth is, yes, it was a terrible mistake. On May 12 in Perth, Australia, the highly touted Hennessey declared Nina Hughes the winner before rescinding the announcement and awarding the win to Cherneka Johnson. This led to a dramatic change in mood for both Hughes and Johnson and the speed with which Hennessey corrected his mistake added to both the whiplash and the feeling that this would be, for those so inclined, a chunk of comedy gold.

“I’m in control,” Hennessey said after the results. “It’s all about me. I take full responsibility. I have apologized to everyone involved and now I apologize to you. I’m sorry for what happened. Again, I own it and I can try and do better next time. Not my best day at the office. I think all the dirty comments on social media are coming. And I’m crushed and sorry for my storm of play. You all deserved better. Sorry again.”

For perspective, Hennessey is not alone when it comes to making mistakes in the boxing ring or, if only for one night, being considered bad in his career. In fact, if it weren’t for the ability we all now have to capture people at a very low level and create widespread attention for themselves in this snapshot, a mistake like Hennessey’s would be largely overlooked, buried. If, for example, his previous gaffe on social media, Hennessey would have received boos from the crowd in the area, insults from men and women in the ring, and maybe some kind of admonition from those who mattered to him. behind. That would be it. There will be no extension of this disgrace and certainly no attempt to make Hennessey infamous for doing something he regrets. There can, in other words, be both a place and a permission to forget. There would be another war, and another after that.

Hennessey, unknown in this country, has undoubtedly felt the change. Hired by Sky TV as a commentator in 2003, the former US Marine initially focused on basketball, covering the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL) and becoming the main commentator for the 2012 FIBA ​​Under 19 World Championship.

As for fighting games, Hennessey, who moved to New Zealand in 1998 to become a DJ, was introduced to them in 2006 when he announced the World Grand Prix K1 in New Zealand. He would later announce David Tua vs. Shane Cameron for the Duco Events promotion in 2009, and make Tua’s last four fights with most of Joseph Parker.

The suggestion now is that Hennessey, despite all this experience, is bad at his job, the belief of many people working within the sport. However, if he needs it, Lieutenant Dan can take comfort in the fact that many of those people who criticized him for being bad at his job will be in Saudi Arabia this week reporting on John Fury headbutting a Ukrainian as if it mattered. then they report on the heavyweight boxing match as if the heavyweight boxing match is the only thing worth reporting on during their time in the Middle East. These people we call journalists, by the way. Or the pundits. Or analysts. Reporting and providing insight is their job. Their job is one. Their work. It’s their responsibility.

That is, perhaps the only difference between them and Dan Hennessey is this: they record the mistakes and sorrows of other people, therefore they are great broadcasters, and Dan Hennessey is other people.