Simple question: which referee had the worse performance, Cortez in Khan-Maidana or Cooper in Khan-Peterson? Just curious.
Oh yeah, I'm not under the illusion that these were the two worst ever or even the two worst from their respective years. Just wondering what people thought about them in comparison to each other.
Neither were that bad. Cooper's work was more tidy maybe, but that's probably because the fight that he was dealing with wasn't as dirty as the one Cortez was in. The only thing Cortez has going in his favour, is that he didn't make any rash decsions that changed the outcome of the fight.
Yeah I think both probably get criticized too much, especially in comparison to some of the gems from this year like Mora in Agbeko-Mares and even Zannoni in Helenius-Chisora. It does seem to me like Cooper has gotten far more of a backlash, though I suppose that can be attributed to his fight being closer and his taking more deductions.
Neither, the ref who did the first Mares vs Agbeko fight was horrible! That reffing job was criminal and he should never work a fight again.
That's the only problem I had with Cooper. Overall, I think he done a reasonable job, but sometimes you have to recognize and understand a rough-house type fight for what it is, and you have to resist the temptation to deduct points when little infringements occur. The first point he took off was fair, because Amir was taking the biscuit with the pushing. But the second one was at a time where the fight was at its most sloppiest. Arms were being tangled, heads were pushing into faces, etc. Little infringements like making room with elbow or pushing the head away, were inevitable. So to let all of these things go by and wait until the very end to deduct a point, was wrong. Especially when it completely changed the result of the fight.
Cooper definitely won't be officiating another TV fight... Joe had a bad night but he's proven. But the ref for the 1st Agbeko fight was horrible too.
Cortez seems to have a bad night practically every other time he's on TV. I was hoping the outrage over Mayweather-Ortiz would finally get him to retire, even though that was shaping up to be one of his rare unintrusive performances.