Lara-Warrington

I think when he walked forward to Foster and said he's OK, he should of been allowed to continue then.

It's after when he was stumbling about and you could see foster was on the verge of stopping it then, ultimately when he probably should of done so.

 

We dont, which speaks volumes in itself as we know Matchroom love a 'he was ahead on the cards' narrative.

 

Maybe, but you know for a fact Warrington was ahead on the cards so they haven't released them. If the Martinez fight had been scored fairly then maybe they would have

 

This is part of the problem isn't it when one fighter is given different treatment to his opponent. We know Lara would have been stopped if the circumstances were flipped around. Foster's judgement should not be influenced by what's riding on the contest.

This adds to the judging too...you have British fighters who have been officiated by the blokes at the BBBofC for the majority of their careers. This is going to affect judgement albeit unconsciously. If Foster can give Warrington the benefit of the doubt he can also do it when judging a close round etc. No wonder we're currently an embarrassment with our biased officiating.

 

Agree it would've been a smart move, but at MW/SMW at least Canelo has distorted the market and you can see that in some of the decision making. Everyone waiting to try and land the big money fight with Alvarez rather than getting on with their careers.

 

We're probably going to see a few more fighters whose careers were disrupted by Covid; not the virus itself, but the lost momentum both inside the ring and commercially.

With most top fighters fighting 1-2 times a year, if you then add a year+ in limbo for many fighters it can be time they never get back. Obviously some fighters have remained more active than others, but there have been far fewer fights and life itself has been far from normal in many ways. That has a knock on effect on training, sparring, motivation and overall mental health.

No-one in the top 10 heavies has fought more than once in the last 12 months, and many of those were marking time type fights. I'd be surprised if we see too many huge fights in 2021 either.

I'm not blaming Covid for Warrington losing or anything like that. It's more an observation that time doesn't stand still and we may see more of these fights in the coming months where the balance of power has shifted imperceptibly and "upsets" become more common.

 

His legs were completely gone, he was very lucky not to get completely splattered in the 4th and I think the only thing that kept him in it was him stumbling about making him an unpredictable target. As it was towards the end of the round Foster thought he could get him through it, at the end of the round he can't get in there quick enough to break it up before guiding Josh back to his corner (quickly removing his hand from Josh's waist when he realises what he is doing). I have re watched it and it doesn't get any better.

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But they did see the threat, josh is on record saying his dad warned him about this fight, and not to slip up...

The thing i find silly, and i am not making excuses for JW, but watching his entrance with all the PR BS etc must have took some time to do.

Maybe all that took up his time and he believed he was a f*****g superstar....

 

I'll agree with the last part

It seemed too much emphasis was put on him being a star etc

Cursed himself

 

I would be inclined to agree with you on all points, though i don’t think it’s as black and white as the above, as there is a counter arguement. If I was playing devils advocate I’d argue with the below;

• Josh was on wobbly legs, very very clearly, however he did fire back and land clearly in particular a left hook right hand that would add that he was still in the bout.
• With regards to him jumping in quick, you could say its right for him to do that as Josh is clearly only a couple of big shots away from the bout being over. In a high-octane situation like that the boxers may not hear the bell, and if they carried on an extra few seconds potentially Josh could get knocked out after the bell robbing both boxers of a proper conclusion to the bout.
• Finally, with him leading Josh to his corner the referee does has the authority and power to stop a bout in between rounds and still has a duty of care at that point. He could have simply been steadying Josh to see if he can actually walk on his own accord which he then went on to show.

Just to be clear, I think most of the above is **** and the bout should have probably been stopped earlier than it was. But the above would be three counter points Howard Foster could argue in his defence and probably carry on as he has been in the past.

 

It is very ambiguous, I do agree that refereeing is a high pressure situation under which decisions need to made in a split second and I would be willing to give Foster the benefit of the doubt but his and other top referees consistency over the years has been appalling (I'm calling out IJL and Terry O'Connor here). The BBBoC will always fall back on the excuse of ambiguity but really they are out of touch with modern boxing and how everything is accountable on social media. In truth the sport is rotten to the core.

 

Definitely. I feel like we’ve seen the same few British referees over the last 5-10 years, its time for some new blood with fresh ideas on the correct way to referee a bout to come through.

 

Warrington was 6 rounds up on 2 cards and 13 rounds up on Sherry O'Donors