When stakeholders assess Mark Chamberlain vs. Pierce O’Leary as a potential Fight of the Year, they may well point to the way fans erupted on social media after seeing referee Leszek Jankowiak’s blood-stained shirt.

Chamberlain, a super lightweight from Hampshire, England, traveled to face Pierce O’Leary in Dublin’s 3Arena last weekend. The fight for O’Leary’s IBO super lightweight title ended in the tenth round, stopped at 1:37, when the Polish referee waved it off after Chamberlain dropped O’Leary for the third time in front of a 7,000-strong crowd. The two had originally been scheduled to meet back in March, before Chamberlain withdrew with a chest infection and O’Leary went on to win the vacant title against Maxi Hughes instead.

“OMG THE REF’S SHIRT 😳😭,” the message accompanying footage of the fight’s final moments on broadcast partner DAZN’s Instagram post read.

With the night’s Master of Ceremonies, Thomas Treiber, announcing the official result, Jankowiak stood emotionless between Chamberlain and the newly beaten O’Leary. What immediately drew attention, however, was his shirt. Blood stains stretched across his torso.

The comment on the clip couldn’t have been more pointed: “Ref looks like he just fought.”

That was clearly not the case. The simple reason why Jankowiak’s shirt looked so bloody was that he had just officiated an explosive, see-saw war that featured four knockdowns before it was finally stopped.

O’Leary was floored twice in the opening rounds, first by a left hand in the second that left him with a bloodied nose, then by a left uppercut late in the third. Both times, the previously unbeaten Dubliner beat the count and kept fighting, working his way back into the contest over the following rounds. His resilience paid off in the seventh, when a body shot sent Chamberlain down for the only knockdown of his night.

By that point, both fighters were carrying visible marks of their battle, and Jankowiak’s sleeves had already become stained from repeatedly stepping in to separate the pair from the clinches. Entering the tenth round, the fight remained close on the scorecards. With just over a minute left in the round, Chamberlain pummeled O’Leary onto the ropes, from where he could not recover, and Jankowiak stepped in to stop it, handing O’Leary his first professional loss and crowning Chamberlain the new IBO super lightweight champion.

As busy as the fighters kept themselves, the bout barely left a moment of respite for the Polish match official.

Fans React To Referee Leszek Jankowiak’s Blood-Stained Shirt

Looking at his shirt, fans responded with some hilarious reactions online.

“Ref just got in fight with spaghetti, and the spaghetti won,” wrote one. Another added, “Looks like someone threw a plate of spaghetti at the referee.” The comparisons likely came from how anyone unfamiliar with eating the Italian staple could easily end up with red tomato sauce splattered across the shirt and sleeves.

The food comparisons didn’t stop there. One fan joked, “When I eat Chicken Tikka Masala.” That’s another fitting possibility. Chamberlain is from England, and the South Asian dish is widely regarded as the country’s unofficial national dish, with a rich sauce that can easily stain clothing if someone isn’t careful eating it.

The jokes kept coming. “He seems like butcher,” one user wrote. Another teased, “Ref looks like he got sprayed by ketchup bottles.”

Much like the Chamberlain-O’Leary bout, the Dubois-Wardley fight, regarded by many as a modern classic, left referee Howard Foster’s shirt soaked through with the fighters’ blood by the time it was stopped 28 seconds into the eleventh round.

With that in mind, both fights have made compelling cases in the Fight of the Year race, giving judges plenty to consider in the months ahead.