Controversial stoppages that aren’t actually controversial

Chavez vs. Taylor 1

Fair call. Taylor won a gold medal. He had experience. Every fighter knows who has been boxing a long time as Taylor has, when you get knocked down you get up, stabilize your balance, put your hands up, look the referee in the eye and tell him (or her) you’re OK or good or fine or something. But when you don’t do those things and the referee twice asks you if you are OK, and you don’t respond, can’t complain when the fight gets stopped. I also recall that in the interview, Taylor claimed he put his hands up and told the referee he was OK, but the replay contradicted that claim.

Also, you can’t say Richard Steele wasn’t consistent. He always erred on the side of safety. The same folks who criticize him, had he allowed the fight to go on and Chavez landed one more punch and Taylor died, all those same people would be the first to criticize that the referee should have stopped it. The referee is a not a timekeeper. Referees are not instructed to let the fight go on if the guy is completely concussed and not answering your questions but there’s less than 10 seconds left. You stop it when it’s time to be stopped. Had Taylor died, people would be asking Steele why did you allow it to go continue when you asked him if he was OK and he didn’t respond?

Not a controversial stop at all. The referee acted as trained and instructed in modern refereeing technique.

Mike Tyson vs. Carl Williams

Same thing. Carl Williams got dropped. He got up relatively quickly and leaned on the ropes. He did not stabilize his balance of his own accord. When the referee, Randy Neumann, asked him if he was OK, there wasn’t a response at all other than making a strange face or grimace, slightly closing his eye briefly and raising his eyebrows, more indicative of a no than a yes. As soon as the referee stopped it, then the fighter complained and vociferously said he was OK. But that was too late. If he really wanted to continue, the time to convince the referee was before he stopped it not after. In summation, leaning against the ropes, not putting his hands up, not looking at the referee and saying I’m OK. Proper stoppage.

Television often likes to stir up controversy because it makes for good copy and discussion, but they aren’t always objective, neutral, and dispassionate.

Also, what we would like to see as fans isn’t always what is supposed to happen according to the rules and instructions.

 

Yeah, never a good sign when you get up and you wobble and fall forward into the referee. That was one of those technical knockouts where the fighter’s head is perfectly clear, but his legs are not good. Good point. Lewis probably should’ve remained down for eight seconds before getting up. Always good to let the circuits reset a bit before rising.