Lemieux vs. Tapia - complete mess.

Glen screwed up by not riding the count a bit. Too much of a warrior for his own good. Really needed to clear the cobwebs there. Had it continued unimpeded he was going to get himself KTFO.

Russell Mora waited a beat too long to start the count and was then uneven with it (was a full three or seconds behind when he reached eight; on my count it had been eleven-plus since Tapia hit the deck) and this partially stemmed from another problem, him diving in to acknowledge the down & start his count with no sense of personal space, barging into Lemieux and having to bodily usher him clear of his path. Then he marched Tapia into a corner but stood off a full yard away from him before starting to beckon him forward. The ref is supposed to be positioned right there in front of the fighter to see if they're responsive and grab their wrists for the liveliness check as soon as they get up. Mora is a very bad referee.

Roach probably should have given Tapia one more chance - Tapia did seem clearer-eyed with each passing second the longer he paced and interacted with Mora, and one desperate game-changing hail Mary bomb could have gotten through in an exchange if Lemieux came in horny for the finish - not like we've never seen Lemieux open to getting countered before. Not his shining moment of judgment in a corner.

 

Not to take anything away from David; that was a good clean KO win. There are just some unsatisfying loose ends, and each of those men listed above could have done things a little differently to leave it feeling a little neater.

 

Farmy, nobody is putting that kind of pressure on Canelo. Hagler and Monzon? People are only just barely daring to suggest Golovkin might belong in their company (with a litany of "Ifs" to get there, involving either cleaning house entirely or moving up or down to beat someone in the p4p top few) and he's a much longer tenured MW champ, even if not the "lineal" one.

 

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Roach isn't exactly the most nimble guy these days, so he wasn't first to climb on the apron, but..

 

Yeah. Roach would have issued the order. The guy that jumped up wouldn't have undermined the corner hierarchy to make his own call.