referee’s error cost Mike Tyson a knockout win against Buster Douglas

Referee Luis Pabon on knockdowns
Says referee’s error cost Mike Tyson a knockout win against Buster Douglas

WBA international referee Luis Pabon explains step by step how the third man in the ring should act when a legal knockdown occurs.

Interestingly, one of the examples of a mistake Pabon uses was in the famous Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson fight. Pabon says in round eight after Douglas was knocked down by Tyson, referee Octavio Meyran neglected to pick up the timekeeper’s count and started the count a second late. Douglas barely beat Meyran’s ten count and famously went on to KO Tyson two rounds later. “Tyson won and lost on the same night,” said Pabon, who added that Meyran’s refereeing career was basically over after that fight.

 

Oh boy, this old chestnut...

 

Ther s no such thing as "the official timekeeper's count", as far as the ref being mandated to pick it up. The count is exactly what and how long the ref says. Period.

 

Tyson lost by ko and end of history

 

The count in boxing is a COUNT. It’s not actually measured in seconds because the official can count at any pace he likes after he picks up the count from the timekeeper. A ten count is not measured by a stopwatch. It’s just a 10 COUNT. To let the fighter know where he is at in that moment & to check & see if the fighter is conscious enough to continue & physically capable to continue. In fact the ref doesn’t even have to finish the count he can stop a fight at ANYTIME.

 

Agreed. The actual time down is largely irrelevant. Tyson was down 14 seconds when the referee reached ten. Which, yeah, he didn't say out loud, instead waving his arms to indicate Tyson was counted out.

The referee in the original article must've gone to the Nat Fleischer school of officiating.

 

Tyson just got his behind handed to him my friend, Muhammad Ali in his prime lost his title to the U. S. Government in 1967, not from any opponent in the ring, like Tyson did.

 

All those saying the referee's count is the only one that matters, have no problem with the Liston-Ali II stoppage in which Liston didn't receive a count at all. You can't have it both ways.

 

You can hear Mike talk about it here:

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You can see at 0:5 seconds of this video, the real count in the background by a dude with white gloves. Also, count for yourselves.

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Where are the exclamation points? Did you forget them?

 

Thats.... not even the argument/topic here...

 

Yes it is. People are saying only the ref's count matters but are disregarding it when it doesn't fit their narrative (Ali-Liston).

 

You tell them.

 

No one was even talking about Ali-Liston. This was about Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas.
Besides, it's neither of the fighters faults in either situation. It's the ref.

 

I like old chestnuts!