Joshua be like: WTF are you doing Howard?

Where was the count then. Refs got it wrong clearly.

 

I honestly have no idea what point you are trying to make, you could be smashing your forehead against the keyboard and what is typed out would make more sense to me.

 

He decided not to count. Breazeale bounced off the ropes in good order. That's what I mean when I say the referee played it to AJ's advantage. He could have counted.
A count would have been controversial, yes.
But technically for a brief moment the referee's action was valid.

 

I think the referee reacted too fast to a perceived 'knockdown'. The knockdown on the ropes rule obviously has a grey area, like in such a case.
It was a slight mistake. He could have given a count, but only to save face.
That would have been way more controversial and damaging to AJ's cause. And we'd be blasting it as a worse mistake than what he did.
On the flipside ... IF Breazeale had just stayed laid on the ropes with his arms down and his legs were gone, and Joshua had hit him in that position, we might be saying the referee failed to get it right.

Technically it wasn't bad refereeing at all. Inconsistent maybe, but not bad.
But if I was Joshua I'd be like "WTF ?!" too. :good