Bayless' last two high profile gigs were Fury-Wilder II and Taylor-Ramirez. He couldn't have made it more obvious which camp handed him the briefcase in both fights. He did everything he could for Wilder (some of the breaks looked rehearsed) but it was never going to be enough. Ramirez-Taylor was a total farce. Ramriez gets knocked down in the 6th, is bouncing and stable, nodding his head at the count of 4. How does this result in a 22 second count? Ramirez touched down at 2:53, and action was resumed at 2:31. Blatant corruption. This isn't some Tyson Fury, looking deceased on the mat, only to magically rise up type of call. Ramirez was STABLE at 4 seconds into the count. Knockdown 2 occurs at 0:32 of the 7th round, Ramirez is wobbled badly but AGAIN we see a 22 second count. Action is resumed at 0:10 of the 7th. If you pay Bayless, you can get favorable point deductions, 22 second counts, quick breaks if you're a boxer, slow breaks if you're a brawler, choreographed breaks, momentum breaking warnings while the "villain" fighter is coming on strong, etc. It's clear that due to fan bases, marketability, promotion, whatever, Josh Taylor was not "supposed" to win. Someone had some big plans for Ramirez and they got blown up. Bayless probably doesn't come cheap. His behavior and the scorecards reflect a heavy investment. I accept that corruption is a deep and inevitable part of this sport, but it's time to accept that Bayless has sold the reputation of a good ref that he earned years ago. I'm sure plenty of ESB people have Bayless Bulls*** to call out from other fights too.
Bayless got his "good" referee status from the Mayweather fights, all he did was break up fights on the inside. Personally I think he's more incompetent than anything, the sh1t decisions in Taylor-Ramirez fight clearly affected both fighters in fight altering ways, although in a very different manner.
Get Bayless out of the game, the man is a disgrace to the sport and deserves to be completely shut out. He is a crook on the same level as Byrd and 117-111 Charlo.
He did his not so subtle best to save JCR from a KO loss against Taylor with those long counts. He even rubbed down JCR's gloves twice after the first KD to buy him more time lol And he looked mortified when he realized he couldn't get away with not calling the first KD in Fury vs The Tuscaloser II. And when The Tuscaloser went down again seconds later he ruled it illegitimate even though it should've been ruled a KD And he was definitely trying to buy The Tuscaloser some time to recover with the conveniently timed warning and point deduction And The Tuscaloser thinks he was batting for Team Fury
It is obvious and its quite shocking no investigations are even considered into this... Blatant fraud/corruption... Its telling that nothing is being done about this
I don't think I've ever considered Bayless to be a good referee. You can bet that whoever's the A side is getting a few favours from him.
Bayliss is too old to be dealing with a physical superheavyweight fight All of Fury's title fights have had A-side corrupt officials. Wlad fight: Tony Weeks taking a point for rabbit punches when Wlad was constantly turning his back Wilder 1st bout: WBC Alejandro Rochin bought off Judge Wilder 2nd bout: Bayless bought off ref Wilder 3rd bout? no doubt Haymon will sneak a judge in there. Thank god they didn't buy off Jack Riess in the first bout. - Notice how good a job he did also? you barely knew he was there! Sign of a good referee.
Bayless is definitely a biased ref. He save Floyds ass in the second Maidana fight by not letting Maidana fight inside. It was pure bullcrap.
To many crybabies when your man wins no problem someone else gets the benefit of the doubt they flip out