It was supposed to be a district level inter-college boxing competition, but most of the punches landed outside the ring as a debatable decision resulted in a free-for-all scuffle involving parents, coaches, jury members, participants, and even people from the crowd.

The scenes were similar to the drama normally associated with scripted American ‘professional’ wrestling shows on TV after Thakur College’s Sunny Bhandarkar, the son of Kandivli-based Sports Authority of India (SAI) director Virendra Bhandarkar, lost to defending champion Vidyadhar Shinde from Ruia College in the under-19 tournament being held last week in Murbad, near Mumbai.

As soon as the result was announced, there were protests from Bhandarkar’s corner with his mother Madhu and SAI coach Anil Khare accusing the judges of bias. “Khare rushed towards us and started abusing us,” Milan Vaidya, one of the judges for the bout who suffered bruises in the ensuing melee, told The Sunday Express. “We asked them to give their complaint in writing. But they started resorting to violence and the mother even threatened us.”

The aggrieved Madhu allegedly threatened to hit the announcer with her slipper and threw a chair at the judges. “The chair hit my colleague Asfaq Shaikh,” said Vaidya. This resulted in others at the venue joining the fight, and soon the tables were turned, with Khare and Madhu at the receiving end of mob’s ire as blows were traded freely.

SAI director Bhandarkar blamed the jury for the incident. “My wife and the coaches were just asking the score. She may have become emotional and reacted, but the judges erred by not telling her the score,” he said.

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