Let’s talk about disqualifications

Trainer Victor Valle is a bit of a strange one in this dept. We all remember him running into the ring to stop the fight with Holmes and Cooney and I remember some circles calling it a DQ. Well, I saw the Marvin Johnson - Jean Marie Emebe fight and Valle was Emebe's second. Emebe picked up a cut and in the middle of the 11th round the ref stops the fight to have the ringside doctor check the cut. Valle jumps onto the ring apron and starts to treat the cut and gets into an argument with the doctor who is trying to inspect it. He could have and probably should have DQ'd his fighter or incurred a fine at least because this guy knew better. He had been around for years. The ref should have taken a very firm hand in that instance, but didn't.

 

There’s an old saying I’ve heard football coaches use — ‘make them make the call.’

If your team holds on every play, they’ll probably get flagged three or four times and you’ll lose 30 or 40 yards in penalties, but maybe you gain 100 yards based on holding when blocking. It’s a tradeoff.

Victor knew where the lines were and if made to back off I’m sure he would have … but he’s also going to test the ref and see what he could get away with. Not like he was taking padding out of the gloves or anything, just trying to stop his guy bleeding.

And I have no problem with a second entering the ring to stop a fight to save his guy from distress if the ref isn’t going to stop it when he should. We’ve all seen too many sad cases where a referee let a guy get killed or permanently injured by not stopping a fight. Looking out for a fighter’s safety is the most important job of a cornerman.

 

I would have no problem running into the ring either if the towel I just threw in was ignored or kicked out of the ring. But Valle didn’t in the case of Cooney, he just ran into the ring. When this happens it’s often wondered if they’re looking for the DQ when they know the KO is imminent, such as in Curry v Montgomery, because it won’t be so detrimental moving forward. Who knows? In the Emebe fight, I see what you’re saying. Seeing how far he could go. He took advantage of a weak ref.

 

I’d have to go back and look — maybe I’m thinking of a different fight — but wasn’t Cooney on the ropes on the other side of the ring with his back to Valle in the corner? If I’m recalling correctly, you do what you have to do to get his attention. Throwing a towel that lands in the middle of the ring behind the ref isn’t going to do anything.

As for taking advantage of the ref and getting away with what you can, I’ve seen numerous instances (as have you) of a guy going to his own corner when there’s a stoppage and the corner giving instructions, or taking their time to get the tape fixed when it comes loose and trying to give their guy a sip of water and barking a few instructions … help your fighter if you can and beg forgiveness rather than ask for permission, haha.

 

Helenius vs Kownacki 2 - This was a fair disqualification for repeated intentional low blows. For some reason it was later changed to a TKO.

 

Poor starling being interviewed while clearly still concussed.

 

Mysterious Billy Smith would surely think the guys getting DQ’d today are rank amateurs. He was biting ears long before Mike Tyson was born.

 

And didn't that enable one bizarro interview!

 

Under your question of an example of flagrant fouling gone unpunished, check out half way through the 11th round of the first Jose Napoles v Armando Muniz title fight. That's when Napoles starts to rip away below the belt while his referee simply watches. The 11th begins at 34:35

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Here's another one for you. The first Vicente Saldivar v Baby Luis bout. Good film on this. Apparently, Saldivar was DQ'd for a headbutt at the start of the 7th, which is very strange. Luis was right-handed and Saldivar a southpaw so there is always going to be some head contact, but I saw nothing that would warrant a DQ unless there was points being deducted that I wouldn't notice. Anyways, Saldivar was DQ'd but that was not the end of it. A spanish speaking friend of mine translated that it was a DQ and it appeared in the old Ring Record Book for decades as such. Boxrec also had it as a DQ until somewhere along the line they have changed it to a 7th round stoppage in favor of Luis. I looked at it and said, "What?!" So @Jel I would place this under Bizarre DQ.

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Still find it amazing with this film out there that boxrec changed the result from a DQ to a KO7 for Luis. What the hell?!

 

Was it Michael rush vs Terrance Lewis where the fighters came to touch em up before the start of the final round and Lewis blasted Rush? They tried to continue it but Rush was too messed up and the ref DQd Lewis

 

I'm still confused about what exactly happened in the Little Red Lopez vs. Fel Clemente fight.

 

I remember fres Oquendo used to throw a rabbit punch every looping shot he took. Most of the commentary said "he knocks him down, or lands, on the back of the head." Straight up. Even in the Etienne fight and the Chris Byrd fight as I remember off the top of my head.