Controversial fights where the referee deeply affected the outcome

Here are a couple where mistakes changed the complexion/outcome of a fight:

Joseph Obudate was an engineer I believe who refereed the first Mando Ramos - Pedro Carrasco 15 rounder for the vacant WBC lightweight title. Ramos hammered away at Carrasco, dropping him 4 times, the last time i believe in the 10th but he and Carrasco got tangled up and Ramos ended up pushing him over. At the start of the 11th Obudate just sort of stops them and DQ's Ramos for the offense, claiming he was warning him throughout the fight. Total uproar, even from the Spanish Press (they fought in Spain) stating what a travesty the referee's decision was. Obudate - according to boxrec - had never refereed a bout before and never did afterwards.

The late Steve Smoger refereed the 10 rounder between Lance Whitaker and Lou Savarese. Whitaker dropped Lou in the 4th and Smoger began counting. Smoger, wearing a microphone, could be heard in between counts of 8 and 9 coaxing Lou up. Personally, I don't believe he would have beaten the count. But he did and won the fight.

Harry Gibbs - normally a very staunch referee who took no nonsense refereed the 10 rounder between Mark Kaylor and Dwight Walker. The last 5 rounds (on youtube) Kaylor has a severe cut and the blood-letting is immense. Kaylor's shorts are now pink, Gibbs' shirt looks like he was attacked with a knife and it goes on round after round but he will not stop the fight. When the final bell rings he immediately raises Kaylor's hand in victory. Compare that to his handling of Joe Bugner v Chuck Wepner. Wepner is cut at the end of the 2nd or 3rd round. When the bell ends the round Gibbs doesn't even give the corner a chance to barely do anything. He just stops the fight.

Roland Dakin - on the same note as Gibbs, Dakin was reffing the Howard Winstone - Mitsunori Seki featherweight title bout. Winstone was already cut for a few rounds but in the 9th Seki picked up a cut. I want to call it a nick because even when the camera zoomed in I couldn't see it. But Dakin didn't call in a doctor or let it go to see if Seki's corner could do anything with the nick, as he did with Winstone's. The fight was close and with 6 rounds to go it was anybody's, But Dakin just stopped the fight.

 

Last night between Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach really screwed up with the outcome due to the referee not calling a KD that would have been the difference of the results.

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What I find even more interesting is that according to one of the commentators, the commision looked at it inbetween rounds. That would mean that instant replay and review was in place - yet They chosed not change the ruling.

I'm not sure what the rules say if I'm honest. Maybe someone could shed some light on it? Davis did not go down from the punch, but on his own chosing. Isn't it down to referees discretion perhaps, what to do in that instance?

 

I'm not blaming the ref if the low blow is so subtle and hit only occasionally it can be dismissed as an "accident" but Mares really wanted to bust some nuts that night.

 

That knockdown was the final straw, Moore needs medic,not mauling.

 

Duran vs Buchanan had a bit of reason of it being a quite accidental low blow,but I do kinda agree with the Pedroza opinion,when he gets dirty he's surprisingly more entertaining,but at the same time you'll start to root for his opponent more.

 

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I def had John winning no matter what,but Cortez had weird refereeing here,I counted all low blows and only one seemed to hit below the belt,the other is perfectly on the belt..

 

Breidis - Glowacki

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Fury - Wilard 1,

Michalczewski - Roccighiani 1

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I'm not sure if the judges were obligated to do a 10-8 and the rest of the fight would've played out differently.

 

The ref screwed up by not calling it a KD. That was the major difference in the judges scorecards that led to Tank escaping with a gift draw.

 

Tank went down on a knee after a series of punches. Clearly he wanted time to recover but you don’t just turn your back on one knee, stop completely expecting the entire fight to wait on you. The ref blatantly chose not to call it a knockdown for some reason. That was a screw up.

 

"Downed Boxer. A boxer shall be considered "down" when, as a result of a legal
blow, any part of his body, except his feet, makes contact with the floor of the ring, or when he
hangs helplessly over the ropes."

That's the WBA rule. I agree with the call. He didn't take a knee because of a punch. When a fighter takes a knee as a result of getting their ass kicked, on the other hand, it is from a punch.

 

Kiltschko Povetkin was the best fight in boxing history.

 

They apparently aren't but its rare enough where we take it as a given a KD is 10-8.

 

Ah well played Jack a giant of the sport and an icon never to be forgotten, thanks for actively keeping his legend alive and his name spoken.