Am I the only one who thought Joe Cortez...

... did a terrible Job ref'ing that fight?

I know that people tend to see fights differently depending on what kinds of styles they like, who they want to win, etc., but this is how I saw it:

It seemed to me that Cortez was determined to not allow that bout to be an inside fight and I go so far as to say that he was crooked in favor Mayweather:

1) He broke the fighters prematurely on several occasions instead of letting the in-fighting take it's due course. An inside fight was Hatton's only chance at victory over the faster/craftier boxer.

2) He never warned Floyd for clinching even though he was doing it constantly. Granted, Mayweather was slick enough to do it on the opposite side of Cortez almost every time, but Cortez wasn't making much of an effort to catch him.

3) Cortez warned Mayweather for using his forearms ONCE when he used them (and his elbows a few times) constantly and often blatantly when Hatton made it inside. No point was ever taken.

4) Cortez penalized Hatton for hitting Floyd on the back of the head when every instance was the result Floyd either turning around or bending way over. So what is Hatton supposed to do when he has Floyd trapped on the ropes or in the corner? Let him out and not hit him Just because Mayweather won't face him?

The whole thing stunk to me. I'm not saying Hatton would have won, but I think he did abandon his gameplan and lose his composure as a result of the poor ref'ing.

It's a shame because I think it would have been a much better fight.

By the way, I don't have an extreme dislike for Floyd like a lot of people do, but I do have a tendency to pull for the underdog in most fights. This is just the way I saw it.

 

Hatton wasn't getting inside to hold though. Floyd was doing the majority of the holding. He was trying to get into position to punch at close range so that he could nullify Mayweather's speed and reach advantage. He would have been an idiot to try and box Mayweather from the outside. By getting in close and throwing short punches, he was getting Mayweather in the corner or on the ropes where he couldn't use all his tools. It was a good strategy, but the Ref not only broke them several times before they were tangled up, but did nothing about Floyd's holding or blatant elbows and forearms to Ricky's face when he was on the ropes.

 

I'm not a Hatton fan. I'm just a boxing fan that paid 54.95 to watch this fight and thought that it was shittier because of Joe Cortez.