I can remember two that happened recently that were TERRIBLE: Joe Cortez during the Soto v Lorenzo fight. We all remember this one; Soto was schooling Lorenzo and on his way to knock him out when he was DQ'd for punching behind the head when Lorenzo was going down. This fight was originally for the interim WBC title the WBC decided not to award the belt to Lorenzo. Frank Santore Jr. took a dump in the ring during the Martinez v Cintron fight. He counted a clean, cut opening left by Martinez as a headbutt and then seemed to stop the fight later on when Kermit got knocked down in the end of the 7th. He changed his mind and made the fight continue. In the twelfth, he took a point away from Martinez for rabbit punching and it ultimately turned the fight from a UD to a majority decision draw.atsch Both epic robberies and I hope Martinez can come back from his the way Soto seems to have done.
Whoever the ref was for that Bute vs Andrade fight was equally bad and there's one fight I remember were the ref pushed both the fighters back one of them was off balance and fell then he waved off the fight horrible.
I gotta agree with this one, too. Hatton had Tszyu's right hand locked under his armpit all night and the ref didn't say a word about it.
Eddie Cotton in the Tyson-Lewis fight. He spent most of the early rounds yelling at Lewis for no reason, scolding him for hitting Mike so much I suppose? Richard Steele in the Chavez-Taylor fight.....well...if you count the last two seconds of it with Chavez all the way on the other side of the ring Joe Cortez in the Mayweather-Hatton fight. He really did break up the fighters too fast and took a point from Hatton for MISSING a punch to the back of the head when Floyd had his body in a position where nothing else was open. Most likely would not have helped Ricky but when facing the pound for pound best fighter on the planet you need everything you can get. the referee in the Brewster-Krasniqi fight when he helped Krasniqi up after he got leveled by a left hook the referee in the Augustus-Burton fight for taking points from Augustus because he was dancing despite the fact he was straight whoopin Burton's ass
Paul Sita in Derrick Gainer vs. Freddie Norwood. Pure incompetence. Can't find a youtube link though. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMfDqZyn1NM&fmt=18[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z01Ph7YkQY&fmt=18[/ame]
This entire fight is a case of a ref doing his job just fine, it just happened to not suit Hatton's less than legal hug and mug tactics. He broke them up quickly because it was pretty obvious what was going to happen every time Hatton tried to clinch. The amusing thing is it probably ended up helping Hatton last longer because he wasn't getting much done when he did cozy up to Floyd, and Floyd was hitting him with some good inside shots. But the point I bolded is something that drives me crazy. You CANNOT hit a guy in the back of the head no matter what position he's in. DOESN'T matter. In this case Hatton and Floyd were tangled up together against the ropes, Hatton leaned on him and Floyd when face first between the top rope and the second rope and then Hatton took a swing at the back of his head. It's not like it was a late swing, it was pretty obvious exactly what the intent was, and it was equally obvious that the ref was on his way to step in and seperate them as Floyd was half out of the ring with Hatton leaning on him. Bottom line, if you take an intentional swing at the back of another fighter's head you deserve to lose a point every damn time, whether it lands or not. It's really ****ing dangerous. If a fighter has his back turned so that it's the only viable target then you wait for the ref to warn, penalize, or DQ him. You don't take a free shot at his brain stem.