I just finished rewatching the Aber Mares vs Joseph Agebeko fight. First time around I felt the referee did a poor job and I still do. He simply failed to take control of the fight. Not an easy task I might add. If Joe Cortez was in there, we probably would have heard boos similar to that of the Mayweather Hatton fight... [Cortez stopping the fighters every 2 minutes to give a lecture]... Both Mares and Agbeko fought like seasoned veteran fighters. Just to get this out of the way. In regards to the first knockdown, Mares landed a very hard left hook to the body prior to Agbeko "slipping" so yes that is a perfectly valid knockdown! Anyways, Abner and Joseph pulled out all the tricks in the book. Sure they could have penalized Mares for low blows early to mid-fight. But if you want to play by the book, then penalize Agbeko for constantly grabbing and pulling Mares' head down. He threw that left hook wide and almost every time, would cup his hand around Mares' neck and pull him down. Those are the times Mares clearly landed low early in the fight. Come the mid-rounds, Mares landed beautiful body punches clearly on the belt-line. I believe on 2 or maybe 3 occasions, Al Bernstein threw a tantrum but during the slow-mo replay, cut himself off from talking mid sentence because Mares supposed low-blow appeared legal and on the belt-line. As the fight continued rounds 10, 11 and 12 the drama shot through the roof. Mares was still landing hard body shots and 1 appeard low however not without more head-pulling from Agbeko. There is no question as to what happened in round 11. Mares lands a left hand to the cup of Agbeko and Mora misses the call. Even calling it a knockdown against Agbeko...terrible call. Mora did something no referee should do. And that's not taking control of both fighters, even if it meant momentarily halting the action. Rather than taking points from both fighters or halting the fight like a Joe Cortez would, he let the fighters fight it out. He allowed Abner and Joseph to give us a fantastic fight which you might have missed if you were listening to the Showtime shoutcast team. At least a rematch was issued which in my opinion was the right move, however in regards to all the drama-queens and Showtime broadcasters failing to control their emotions. . . get a grip and get over it. You talk about how this is bad for boxing. No what is bad for boxing is rather than being objective, you insult our officials on camera and take the glory away from our new champions i.e Abner Mares. Abner recently stated he recieved letters cursing him, insulting him and further making his first world title win that much more sour. Way to support the scene boxing fans and Showtime. Till next time friends . . .
yeah I would say about 99% of the people on this forum disagree with you. First of all Mares is a dirty fighter no doubt about it, he landed a low blow or beltline shot in every round of the fight. I thought the broadcasters did fine they were mentioning the low blows but weren't really getting pissed till about the 5th or 6th round when it was happening all the time. In all my years of watching boxing I have never seen someone hit that low so many times and the fighter not be disqualified. The people in the media seem to want to crucify Mora but give a pass to Mares. Simple fact is Mora was either on the take that night or he is incompetent or his mind wasn't really on the fight, either way a suspension with a cut in pay is in order so he knows how it feels when his actions effect the livelihood of the fighters that he referees. I gave Mares a pass in the darnchinyan fight even though he was landing low in that one too, I thought ah he just had a bad night, Vic is an awkward fighter, things just happen but fighting Agbeko a fighter who isn't really dirty landing nut shot after nut shot I just felt disgusted with his performance. He should being receiving hate mail from the fans who are pissed with his performance, If I was him I would give back the belt and take a rematch in 3 months.
my disguisting fight **** golden boy promotions for paying off the referee, another black eye for boxing russell mora is a vile motherf**king [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG4z5e1xvjs[/ame]
There are many low-blows the commentators called that really aren't low blows, including the ones where the slow motion replays proved it isn't when they initially thought it is. But there are also valid low blows, not as numerous as many people make it out to be, but still illegal low blows. I understand what you are saying. There are a lot of borderline shots fired at the belt consider still legal but just because we found out there are lesser low blows doesn't mean it is okay now. Considering the game changing 11th round terrible call and the reactions of fans you'd think he'll finally make a move and take control of the fight but he didn't. How many times can you give a warning before you issue a penalty?
If Low blows where one's that were landing on belt line and slightly above it, then yeah Mares is a dirty cheating *****. But no, it is a legit shot in the most grey area, right on the belt, the lowest place allowed to hit. I heard Tarver say, "Wow he nearly hit his knee with that low blow" Then I go back, slow mo with my HDDVR and wow, legit shot right on the left side of body... this idiots were just talking ****. The commendtators were disgusting I feel like cancelling my SHO service and sending them a message of how they ruined a champs win with their horrible commentating, and ruined the match... I watched it 3 times now, the 3rd with no commentating I had mares winning by a rather large margin... and in the 11th I scored it correctly as a point deduction. I agree with that 11th round though, that was pure BS, but Mares would have won anyways... and he will win a rematch.
Corrupt referee overlooking the repeated fouls of one fighter to a point where the other didn't have a chance of winning. That sums it perfectly.
I completely agree. I think it was a tough fight to call. The referee issued warnings to both fighters. He didnt give a hard warning to Mares till the 10th where Mares landed one clean and one low near the hip which was a good call imo. The ref totally screwed up in the 11th but i dont think its fair to start insulting him on camera and calling for suspensions etc. Showtime also ruined the fight by calling every body shot a lowblow only to find out on the slowmo replay shot theyre fair shots. They let their emotions get the best of them and they mistreated both mora and mares imo.
I thought the commentadors did a fine job. Yes, Agbeko was pulling his head down on several occassions that could have contributed to the low blows. Mares is a dirty fighter who is known for getting his opponents low, even without his head being pulled down. Honestly, I prefer Showtime commentadors instead of the bias HBO crew with their copubox numbers they use as reference to tell the crowd who is winning. Lampley with his "big right hand from Taylor, another one lands too!" Mares and Agbeko need to do it again without Mora as the referre of course. :good
Anybody blaming low blows on Agbeko is simply biased. Mares should have been DQ'd point blank period. He won due to ref error. And to the person that said that Agbeko went down from a body shot in the first. You must have been smoking a hell of a chalice. Agbeko lost his footing when he threw that hook, it had nothing to do with Mares. Agbeko will win the rematch easy. If Mares pvssies out, then fvck Mares. He will get KO'd by Donaire, or Riggodeux anyway.
having rewatched it 3 times "MUTED" I only counted 5-7 low blows, 12-15 beltline shots, for Mares. I counted 12 illegal holds(6 contributed to 3 low blow and 3 borderline blows) and 3 INTENTIONAL headbutts. Had a robot scored the fight it woulda been a NC, double DQ, but this is a human sport, and in the course of a battle some shots are gonna go south, and in frustration some head are gonna get banged. I won;t call either a cheater as their dirty play was part of the game, but Mares was clearly the winner, and in the close rounds, slow moing it, I actually took 2 round I had previously scored for Agbeko. Wide UD for Mares IMO proving the prodigy is ready to **** Donaire if Donaire is man enough to make the fight happen.
Mares is a dam good body puncher. I thought that he was making the fight and without the knockdowns , I had him winning. The last knockdown was a bodyshot which was partially blocked by agbeko and deflected low. I watched it 10 times. Agebeko cant take it to the body. He lost. The ref did his job and called it right.
I thought they both fought a little dirty. Agbeko was throwing that left hook wide and grabbing Mares on purpose. Mares may have intentionally or unintentionally fired low cause of this we cqnt say for sure. Hey it happens. Look at mayweather castillo, ward kessler, froch dirrell, holyfield tyson etc etc. Agbeko to me was faster and much more crisp and slick. Mares was forcing the fight and outworking agbeko. Then he started chaning it up every round. One round he would get off first everytime. The next he would keep his hands high and play the counter puncher. He fought an amazing fight and has a higher iq / more versatility whereas agbeko is sneaky and slick imo i think mares wins the rematch by UD.
