Luis Alberto Lopez Vargas vs. Reiya Abe & Otabek Kholmatov vs. Raymond Ford - Round by Round.

He couldn't because his mind was floating in Jupiter. He was gone.

 

Kholmatov brain was rattling. You know that. He fought a good fight, but he clearly took too many clean hard punches.

As talented as he is, that's the best he'll ever be.

 

Funny thing, I woke up and turned on the fight with 33 seconds left in round 12 so, apparently, I saw the good stuff. I've now gone back and watched that last half minute close to 20 times. Here is what I saw related to all of the posts on this round-by-round thread about the stoppage.

1. Kholmatov was obviously shook. He tripped over his own feet twice. First, when he hit the ropes and bounced into Ford's arm who threw Otabek off of him and, second, when he was staggered along the ropes right before the end of the fight. While he did trip, he did so because he was hit.

2. Kholmatov did not turn his back on the fight. It was just the way he landed against the ropes after tripping.

3. While I don't believe anything was rigged the referee made the wrong call. If I'm not mistaken, there are no standing eight counts but Kholmatov's backing away and tripping over his own feet was precipitated by a punch. He was staggering and almost definitely would have gone down if the ropes weren't there to hold him up. The ref should have called it a knockdown on that basis and given Kholmatov an 8-count.. That would have ended the fight and Kholmatov would have and should have won.

4. I did not hear any of Tim Bradley's comments but I can tell you this. The way Joe Tessitore screamed at the top of his lungs after the ref stopped the fight was freakin' embarrassing and unprofessional. He does it all the time and it is just horrible. The 20 or so replays I watched were all from ESPN's Spanish language broadcast and the announcer had the proper excitement level. He was excited because a last minute win in a championship fight is a big deal and an announcer should show a heightened enthusiasm for the moment. However, he wasn't screaming and sounding like he just had sex for the first time in three years.

Lastly, the RBR was full of so much disgust for the announcing team and so much indignant outrage for the stoppage that what Ford did is getting overlooked. In a fight he was losing, he hurt Kholmatov and went after him hard. He managed to do enough damage to get the fight stopped despite the fact he had suffered a bit of a pounding going by how his face looked. He showed championship mettle and deserves props and congratulations.

 

The stoppage was bad. Kholmatov turned because Ford was pushing him in the corner. Corruption as usual. They are killing this sport.

 

That is exactly the same as i see it

 

In the pros there are no standing counts, championship or not. The only situation when it can happen is when the ropes are the only reason why the fighter is standing, and that's not actually a proper standing count really.

I havent watched the fight, though. Anyway, if the ropes held him and avoided him to go to the canvas, then it is a legit KD and should be counted.

 

Nah, I dont buy it. Boxing might be corrupt, I dont deny it, but you dont hate it.

 

Well, I just watched the 12th round. Holy crap!!! Mother of God..... what the referee did was amazing.

Did the referee bet on this fight? Holy moly......

Now I understand the comments here.