Steve Smoger

I thought he did a fantastic job. Too many referees make the fight all about them.

 

He let them infight whenever possible and when the action did bog down he broke them up as needed.
I hardly noticed he was there which is a tell tale sign of a great ref.

Honestly somebody should tie down Cortez and make him watch the last 20 fights Smoger reffed and if he doesnt learn from it either force him to retire or shoot him (kinda harsh but im so sick of him you would not believe it)

 

The blueprint for all refs imo,he let them fight,and i only remember him seperating them 2 or 3 times.A very well reffed fight.
I wonder if Meldrick Taylor and Carl Froch have a rematch,will he be interested in the job ?

 

Any chance we could give him some PED,s and have him officiate every fight all over the world at all times? He seemed flawless to me last night.

And i knew id be waking up questioning some decision making from the fight but i didnt think it would be the judges gifting Froch rounds last night. I was a little tired and a little drunk but did 2 of the judges really only give it to Ward by 2 rounds? Or did i dream that. On my own card i felt i was stealing off Ward by giving Froch any more than 3 rounds the whole fight.

 

Gotta love Smogey, his trousers are sensational.

 

Nope you heard it correctly, the weirdest thing is the only ref that got it right was the brittish one.... go figure.
I struggled to give Froch more than 2 rounds.
Fair play to Froch though he gave no excuses and was all class about it.

I think Khan should take note who was just being a misereble little ***** at the broadcast.

*edit ive said it before a few times but ill take it a step further, cant we include the refs in a small % of the purses so we can get Smoger/Weeks/Bayless to do all the championship level fights or at least the elite fights?
Imagine Cortez doing yesterdays fight just spoiling everything and making it horrible to watch.... Smoger showed last night how vital it is to have a competent ref do his thing.

 

Steve Smoger was the referee? :huh Didn't notice him.

 

:good

 

Steve Smoger is top notch referee. Let's the fight flow as much as possible without constantly breaking.

Smoger is a class act.

 

The first real clinch and you just heard Smoger says "try and work yourselves out guys". Perfect refereeing, doesn't jump in, tells the fighters what he wants and stays out of the frame. He may have just moved able Bayless in my p4p rankings. Still think Bayless would cause him problems with his superior speed and excellent back posture, but Smogers high trouser line is elite.

 

Smoger did a good job and ultimately had no effect on the result though he did allow Ward to bull his way in head first when the fighters were on the ropes.

That said Ward was a clear winner for me as I had it 117-112 in his favour.

One thing I don't like at the moment is the leniency being given to fighters who persistently duck down and spend half the fight with their heads below chest level.

FMJ does it, Peterson did Vs Khan and Ward did it a lot last night, it seems to be a US thing which has become mre and more prevalent over the last few years and is obviously being coached.

 

He's a fantastic referee and he does his job perfectly every time out. Does anyone know why he only does the East Coast?

Kenny Bayless is great too.

What's everyone think of Richard Steele?

 

Only does the eastcoast?

He reffed Jones fight in Russia !

 

Think he was a little jetlagged in that bout though. That stoppage wasn't his finest hour.

 

Those happened when Froch tried to clinch when Ward got inside. His hands were behind Ward who would then tie one of them up and keep punching with the other. Actually by not breaking them Smoger was serving notice that these guys were in a fight and it was up to them to sort it out, not clinch and look for him to break them. If you rewatch the fight watch for that. You can only tie someone's arm up like that IF they bring it around back and leave it there, not something you would do normally while punching.