Eagle-eyed fans caught the New Zealand national anthem singer reading lyrics off her hand ahead of Lawrence Okolie vs David Light.
Ahead of world title fights in boxing, national anthems are sung and in the case of Okolie vs Light, ‘God defend New Zealand’ came first, followed by ‘God save the King’.
Fans watching on TV, however, noticed a blunder as the singer doing the New Zealand national anthem was caught reading the lyrics from her hand.
One fan wrote on Twitter: “No way, NO WAY! She legit had the New Zealand national anthem lyrics written on her hand so she didn’t forget.”
Another added: “Not Miss New Zealand with the national anthem words written on her hand.”
This is not the only national anthem debacle of the week, as there were sound issues ahead of ‘God save the King’ at the England vs Italy football match on Thursday.
As for the fight that followed, Okolie defended his WBO cruiserweight world title, beating Light by unanimous decision in an underwhelming performance.
The crowd made their their thoughts on the dull encounter known, as boos and whistles could be heard, with some fans leaving the arena before the fight had ended.
Okolie had this to say about the fight in the aftermath: “David Light was extremely tough and he had a good tactic of moving around to his right.
“But, at the end of the day, there’s no need to make excuses – just get better. I just couldn’t get the last shot to drop him and get him out of there because he was very tough and very good with his hand defences.”
As for his next fight, Okolie said: “I will go in the ring and fight anyone. If they’re watching this and they think ‘Lawrence is rubbish, I can do this, I can do that’, come and find out.
“I’ll put it on the line against anyone and if they’re good enough to beat me, they are, and if not I carry on winning.”
Joshua vs Franklin live on talkSPORT
Anthony Joshua’s quest to become a three-time heavyweight champion begins on 1 April against Jermaine Franklin and talkSPORT will be live from London’s O2 to bring you coverage of the fight.
You can tune in to talkSPORT via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com, DAB digital radio, download the talkSPORT app, or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2. talkSPORT is also widely available across the UK on 1089 or 1053 AM.
