While I agree that he let Porter get away with quite a lot if the Ref wanted to really screw Brook he could have easily made an excuse for Brook holding and taken a point. He just wasn't a very good referee but who cares Brook won and we can look forward to a Brook Vs Khan fight next year.
I thought he let brook hold, wrestle, headlock and maul from the first bell to the last and didn't warn him once. nothing against brook but I hate to see boxing like that, punch and clinch and wrestle, wheres the joy in that?
My thoughts exactly. I was actually expecting worse though. I was also expecting the judges to be more biased towards the champion and home fighter.
Porter was holing just as much as Brook! Also add to the this porter was charging in head down! Then he decided to rub his head into brooks head for a few seconds! He was a little pro porter for me! But certainly not the worst ref I've seen!
I guess Porters team had a big say in who was ref, Drakulich was uber cautious with Rios Chaves a couple of weeks ago,you would think Porter would want Steve(let everything go) Smoger, every fight,I know you cant expect every ref to interpret everything the same. Maybe its time for the commisssioning bodies to appoint without considering who the boxers feel they want or who they agree on but they are pretty feeble and toothless these days its more like sanctioning what the promoters and boxers want
Porter constantly punching round the back of the head of Brook, lots of headbutts, but Kell did hold quite often so the ref could have been stricter on that if he was completely against Kell, then again Porter was also doing holding and it was always Brook who was told to stop holding.
Porter was allowed to twice spin Brook around so that his back was turned, and as soon as Brook was beginning to turn back to face him, was allowed to get straight on his chest using his head to rub Brook up and maul on the inside. Generally before Brook had had a chance to face back around. Very poor IMO. Also I noticed Porter got away with literally pushing Brook back into the corner a'la Ivan Drago. Like someone said I dont think he was doing it in order to favour Porter (as Brook could've been warned/deducted points for holding on a few occasions) I just think he was quite a poor ref. Also, again as someone said this was probably the kinda ref Hatton would've wanted for the Floyd fight. Allowing rough-house tactics, punching behind the head pushing and rabbit punches. Wouldnt have made a difference to the outcome obv but i'm sure Hatton wouldve had slightly more success.
Very typical home reffing, nothing extremely shocking imo. And maybe it's a bit out of place in this thread, but isn't it time to start looking at British home reffing in big fights? I always see complaints here about US and German referees protecting their own, but in reality Britain takes the cake. Yes, I say it's worse as German referees and that's saying something. And when there's another blatant incident, commentators and fans are the first to come up with a lot of bull to justify that crap and then never mention it again. Only of it's Brit vs Brit they will never shut up about it. Everyone here can sum up a couple of really bad British referees from the top of their heads, who very often lead big fights. Time to question why that is.
