Exactly. I don't ever want to see a fighter get hurt but it seems some people think if you argue a stoppage is too quick, it means you're a sadist who enjoys watch men get punched until they're brain dead. There is a middle ground in there somewhere and that's what I'm arguing for. Boxing is a dangerous sport but that's not to say a referee should jump in whenever he sees a hurtful punch land. Both fighters deserve an opportunity to fight as hard as they can and as long as they can, and if one needs to be protected, fair enough, stop the fight. However, simply being tired or hurt isn't an excuse to stop the fight. As long as a boxer can defend himself, let him fight on. Simakov was not able to defend himself. Enzo couldn't defend himself when he got stopped either, however, his opponent from a few weeks ago clearly could. Brook's opponent could. Pajkic was hurt but could defend himself. Murphy, despite being shattered, was able to defend himself. When a fighter can defend himself, I say let it go on. When he can't, that's when it becomes the referees job to protect him.
I think out of all the stoppages you couldve used to highlight your point you chose some of the worst possible ones. Definitely murphy one was early but it wasnt unreasonablely so and its not the refs job to think "oh its near the end of the fight and this is a big oppurtunity for him" the ref should focus on the fight not on the context
As fights go the 4 that were mentioned in the OP, none of them were anywhere near as bad as Bellew-McKenzie I. That fight was still in the balance, I don't believe thats the case in any of the other fights mentioned.
I think the most disappointing thing with these stoppages if the roles(fighters) were reversed, there's no chance the other fighter would've got the stoppage.
Utter nonsense, Murphy was winning by miles in probably his only chance ever fighting amongst the big time ( well sort of, live on telly ) only to get stopped with a couple of rounds to go. I'd say he'll be disgusted tomorrow. No wonder no foreigners want to fight for titles in England.
Yeah, that's right. When Fury was knocked down, he was hurt badly and if the roles had been reversed, the referee would have stopped it. The referee earlier tonight was undoubtedly looking to protect Theophane and you can tell that from his body language before the stoppage. Had Brook been getting outboxed, and nothing more, the referee would have let it go all 12 rounds. It's shameless bias.
it would be nice if all judges/ref's were selected by the BBBC for each show instead of being directly hired by the promoter. at least this would get rid of some of the bias
1) Fury got dumped on his arse and was allowed to continue. His opponent was given the same opportunity but then started shipping more punches, went down again and looked ****ed at the end. 2) Brooks opponent wasn't just getting outboxed, he wasn't trying. He was warned for not trying then the ref stopped the fight. 3) Why would Theophane be protected? He's hardly a ticket seller, its just as likely the ref saw that Murphy was staggered towards the end of the 10 the round and was keeping an eye out or the same thing to happen again. I'm not saying Brit refs don't play favourites where stoppages are concerned but the Brook fight and esp. the Fury/ Enzo/ Theophane fights are bad examples IMHO. Those last 3 fights were all effectively "done" at the time of stoppage.
The ironic thing here is that despite all the recent moaning about the Chisora vs Helenius result if that fight happened in England Chisora would have won by a second round TKo after landing a two punch combo with Helenius still on his feet.
The Fury fight had just swung 60/40 in Fury's favour before the stoppage. That fight was just getting going and a good spectacle despite the shocking level of technical ability both men were showing. The ref ruined a good fight. Pajkic only had 20 seconds to hold out for anyway.
Totally irrelevant. The ref doesn't keep time. Also I'd question the judgement of anyone who thought that fight was 60/40 at the time of stoppage and thats putting it politely!