has there been any controversy over the ref's...

Honestly, I think the ref was overly generous with time after the first KD.

 

Yeah, THIS is the problem. He should have at least allowed him to get to his feet, or try, and THEN assessed the situation.

Refs today seem to panic and stop fights too early. Mares deserved the opportunity to at least try to get off the canvas.

My own take is he either wouldn't have been able to do it, or would have wobbled all over the place if he did. But thanks to this ref's premature intervention, we'll never know.

 

...and then let a fully compos mentis fighter smack his (Mares') head in for the following ten seconds and then probably the second round and maybe the third before he was completely screwed. ****s sake.

 

This 100%. Should have been counted out

 

Mares was sitting there at the same spot over 2 minutes after the fight was stopped and he was still wobbly when he got up. Seriously, sometimes people have no idea what they are talking about here. :rofl

You think that this guy was able to beat the count and keep on fighting? Ref saw his eyes and it doesn't matter did he count to the eight or not cause there was no way he could let Mares keep on fighting.

 

He was still staring into space after the ref left him setting there.

He was in no condition to deal with more of those left hooks.

 

He could have given him the rest of the count to see if his eyes cleared and to see if he was able to continue but he did look completely out of it when it was first waved off.

 

It's a referees job to look after the fighter, it's also a trainers job to do so. If you think your man is out of his depth, pull him out - hence the ref last night, and - for example - Eddie Futch refusing to send Frazier out in the third Ali fight.

 

I don't think in the space of seven seconds a man who had been ****ing smacked to **** would have eyes that cleared.

 

Maybe not but theres no harm in doing it is there? If you give him the time and he still hasn't cleared then you can still stop it without him taking anymore punishment, its just about giving him the benefit of the doubt in that case.

Btw I'm not complaining about the stoppage, good to see a decent upset and I didn't think it was a particularly terrible decision to stop it when it was.