Concerns About the Referee in Lewis-McCall I

Almost immediately after the fight is stopped, the HBO commentary team casts doubt on the validity of the stoppage, citing the WBC's Mexican referee. Obviously, the implication was that WBC President Jose Suliman had used a hometown referee to give McCall every advantage to the title.

Is this a fair concern - or did the commentators jump the gun?

Jimmy

 

It's possible.
But Lewis gave the referee an excellent reason to stop the fight in McCall's favour.

 

Don't know if the fix was in there:conf, maybe - or maybe not, but it was a horrible stoppage, and something smelled bad:-(

Lennox, beat the count and stumbled a little bit, but his eyes looked clear, and he was ready, willing to fight on..

If the fight would have been allowed to continue Lennox probably would have won, he was on a much higher talent level..

 

He stumbled into the referee while trying to show he wasn't hurt.
The referee touched his gloves and Lennox almost collapsed onto him.

 

Fair stoppage

 

What a ridiculous claim:huh

The guy rises from hard knockdown and he's still shaky, it's only 0:30 of round 2 and McCall has more than 2 minutes in that round to land another right.

THe most likely outcome would be like Sanders vs Wlad where Lewis is down few more times and the referee stops the fight.

 

Lenni the girl is the reason for the stopage, his legs were still wobbly, he was leaning on the ref and not responding to him and the count had reached 10 and beyond.

 

Taken in isolation it's a borderline stoppage...but if you use Holmes-Shavers & Holmes-Snipes as yardsticks, there is clear inconsistency in what constitutes a justifiable stoppage..

All 3 fights were for the WBC HW title, Sulaiman & King were hand in hand, Holmes was King's man, Lewis was not. Larry was given the benefit of considerable doubt twice...Lennox wasn't.

These factors are either a major co-incidence or something more sinister.

Fair minded posters will acknowledge these inconsistencies...those with an anti Lewis agenda will not.

 

I HIGHLY doubt Lewis would have made it out of that round. That being said through both rounds there was ZERO indication that Lewis was above and beyond better than McCall. He was landing cleanly before this KO punch and right in their with Lewis. McCall had a granite chin, wouldn't be going anywhere. Even if there was no KD in the 2nd I'd have given McCall a great chance of taking that fight.

 

Every time Larry got knocked out, he got back up in an assured manner and indicated to the ref he was ok in a timely manner. Lenni the girl showed no such bravado. If the ref counts ten, the fighter continues to wobble, lean on the ref, looks dazed, doesn't respond the ref stops the fight.

 

First of all, if Holmes had been knocked out, then he clearly hasn't got up in a timely manner.

Secondly , if the ref counts to "10" the ref automatically stops the fight - it's not a question of whether the fighter looks dazed, leans on the ref etc, the fight is over BECAUSE the ref has counted to "10". This is the whole point - Lewis got up before "10" against McCall.

You don't appear to understand even these basic tenets - I think, with all respect, you need to learn the rules.

When I mentioned posters with an anti Lewis agenda in my previous post, you were one of the posters I had in mind.

 

It was a perfectly legit stoppage if the fight had continued Lewis would have probably received brain damage

 

Tyson actually did in the Douglas fight. He got up at 10 but the ref ended the fight.

 

Agreed. The protection of Lewis was of paramount importance.

 

That is a different matter. But he got up at 10 just in time. He was undefeated, HW champion, if people say Lewi should have been given a chance, so should have Tyson but he wasn't. Rules are fair for everyone.