Cortez should hang his head in shame for not stopping Khan in round 10. Look at the state of him. He took a hammering. He was constantly turning his back on Maidana.
I personally never score a round 10-8 without a knockdown or deduction. My logic is what would happen if he had dropped Khan in the last 10 seconds. Would it be 10-7??
Watch Khan go back to corner at end of 10th. He was on auto pilot and the adrenaline dragged aligned with conditioning left him standing. Even the doctor gets in ring to ask if he's ok.
Just to note that all 3 judges scored the 10th as a 10-8 round. You have a point there Rob but I think it's a pretty clear 10-8 round even without a knockdown. I still scored it level (without the Maidana elbow point deduction) 113-113 so the judge that had it 113-112 was right in my view. I think the one's that had it 114-111 were fair enough as well really. Khan definitely had more share in rounds than Maidana did even though Maidana won at least 5 rounds himself.
Just watching Maidana walk back to corner...his face either takes punches to face really well or Khan just shoe shined his way through that fight. Khan in presser after looked like Elephant Man...the boy took some ridiculous punishment late on. That fight can take years off a man's career. He took a lot of flush hard shots.
Whilst watching the fight i was really surprised the ref didn't stop it in the 10th, Khan was all over the place and was throwing nothing back and i was certain it was gonna get stopped but to my surprise it didn't, could you imagine that fight in Britain?? Ref would have jumped in right away to end the fight.....
It's a good point. All three judges socred it 10-8 but I'm confident none of them would have scored it 10-7 with a knockdown. (As an aside, with a knockdown I'm sure it'd have been stopped by Cortez but that's not the debating point here.)
At the time i thought that a stoppage might have been on the cards, but watching it back i don't. khan was seriously hurt and in big trouble at times, but he still seems to be aware of whats going on. he carries on moving around the ring trying to escape, and on a couple of occasions he avoids punches beautifully. probably a 10-8 round, and i don't think that there would have been many complaints about a stoppage, but to say that cortez SHOULD have stopped it is wrong. he was proved correct in his judgement in the end, as Khan fought back fairly well in the next round and won the fight.
It wasn't that much worse than the hiding Hatton took in round 12 from Collazo, I think Cortez did alright. He should maybe have warned Khan for turning his back but equally Maidana was punching behind the head so it's swings and roundabouts. A British ref, or should I say a British ref in Britain would have gotten all squeamish and would have rugby tackled Maidana off Khan after the first big right hand before waving his arms. See 0:10..... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-3cuCEt9k8&feature=related[/ame]
So, in your opinion Malignaggi was wrong to be stopped against Khan. Cotto wrong to be stopped against Pacquiao?
Little bit different. Malignaggi won barely any rounds against Khan and had no offense to add to his terrible defence. He wasn't slipping many shots like Khan was even in the 10th round. It was a little soft perhaps but hardly matters as Paulie was never gonna win. The timing of the Cotto stoppage was wrong in my view but he was on a beating for many rounds before the 12th when Kenny Bayliss jumped in. It's like Mandanda said, Khan could have been stopped and there probably couldn't have been too many valid complaints, but Cortez gave him the benefit of the doubt and had a word after the round. Khan then improved and there was never any grounds for stoppage in the 11th or 12th. Looks like Cortez was right.
**** me! (no homo) How did Khan survive that? No one would've complained if Cortez had stopped it but he obviously made the right call as Khan went on to win. As for him getting too involved? I don't see it. His interuptions were brief. Not like the french ref in Benn-Mclennen.
What makes me laugh watch Khan's face at one point in that round he does a Froch. (1:24 onwards) You know that face of contempt like he just smelt ****. and a shake of head to go to boot. He did that while he's out on feet. He's nutty as a fruitcake the lad. I never liked him, then when he beat Kotelnik he won my respect (not that it matters) then he lost me when he went back to making stupid comments etc but Saturday night i was proud of him but i try to keep a lid on it with him...
As far as I'm concerned, the only time that a 10th round stoppage should have been questioned is if Khan had been knocked out early in the 11th, then in retrospect we could say maybe the ref could have stopped it in the 10th, but khan came back to win at least one of the last two rounds so how can anyone say the ref SHOULD have stepped in? Like people have said it wasn't like he was a static target, he had his hands up and was moving for the majority of the time so it was the right decision for me