I’m wondering what was the first fight stopped that people were up in arms about being stopped too soon. We know if you go back far enough, referees would pretty much let any fight continue if a fighter made it back to his feet — from Dempsey-Willard in 1919 to Moore-Durellle in 1958 to name a couple. The thread on Johansson vs. Machen (with metntion of the ref and of Johansson-Patterson) highlight this trend and moved me to bring up this topic. So there’s a long era where fights were allowed to go on way past their sell-by dates with fighters taking horrific beatings. Ray Robinson’s beatdown of Jake LaMotta in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was a noted on-his-feet stoppage, but I don’t remember ever reading that anyone felt it was premature (not even Jake?). But somewhere along the way, referees became more caring and compassionate and began waving Ithings off before a beaten man took such a beating. And surely there is a fight somewhere along this shift where fans/pundits and such were vocally unhappy that the referee didn’t allow it to continue on the grounds that the guy taking the beating had enough fight left in him to turn the tide and pull it out. So I’m wondering if we can find that moment. (NOTE: I’m not talking about some fishy stoppage where the consensus was that the ref was crooked and doing it for a payoff or because the mob ordered it, I’m talking about a ‘he’s had enough’ stoppage where people had become accustomed to seeing such fights go on to their rightful/natural conclusion (by the standards of the day) and end in a terrible KO rather than sparing the beaten man from a worse beating — and some voiced their feelings that he waved it off too soon.) I’ve never seen this discussed, so I’m hopeful we have historians who can shed some light on it.
There were a lot of people who felt that Pryor vs Arguello was stopped too early…that might be the first “ Controversy “
I think Mike Weaver might agree. His stoppage loss to Dokes was without doubt a direct result of the hypersensitivity, following the Kim tragedy.
The first one I thought of too. I think it was Ferd Hernadez who was the ref - and he took a bit of flack - but the more I looked at it, it was the right call. Lyle was buzzed and hung up in that corner and was going nowhere. The only thing he was looking at was more straight lefts and rights coming into the old noggin if it wasn't stopped. I still remember Lyle's trainer, Chickie Ferrara saying to Cosell, "What is this, a 4 rounder?" Later, when Lyle fought Foreman, it was the same corner and the same scenario. Getting beat on without a response. So maybe the ref had a point.
Howard Winstone v Mitsunori Seki for the WBCs vacant featherweight title - this bout took place in January of '68 and Britain's Roland Dakin was the sole arbiter. Winstone had a bad gash on one of his eyes for a few rounds when suddenly in the 9th, a cut opened on Seki. Dakin didn't hesitate at all. he did not call in a doctor, he did not give Seki a chance by having his corner work on it between rounds, he just looked at it and stopped the fight in his countryman's favor. This cut was hard for me to even see from the poor film I was watching. There was still plenty of time to go in this bout, but not for Seki.
I hate to say this but when Emile Griffith killed Benny paret, the mayor of New York said "theres plenty of other sports to enjoy, not just boxing. But baseball, basketball, badminton, golf, etc " What perplexes me is that people love boxers but they hate gays (not all people) so Emile dropped a bone chilling message "when I kill a man, they love me. For loving a man, they hate me " as Benny paret aforementioned called him by a gay insult or slur that started the whole thing.
