In light of the Bradley-Vargas fight last night, where the ref thought he heard the bell and interrupted a key point of the fight even though there was less than 10 seconds to go got me thinking on this subject. I think we all recall Tony Perez interrupting Ali's momentum when he apparently stunned Joe Frazier in the 2nd round of superfight II. Again, he thought he heard the bell. But I was wondering about other examples. Here is one i remembered from Quarry-Norton. It is about the 18:40 mark of the video. Quarry was in distress with cuts, but appears to stagger Norton only for the ref to interrupt Jerry's opportunity. It's hard to tell if Norton was hurt actually. He may have only stumbled, therefore meaning nothing. But what's your thought? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzfCZeePz-w
Not sure there's much to be made of that, though Quarry did land a hard combo just then, yeah. Tough to say. This one takes the cake. I don't know that I'll ever see another like this, just a total disgrace. Almost makes one ashamed to be a boxing fan. I don't know exactly where in this one it is, maybe round three? Help me out there, somebody who remembers it.........I've never seen anything this blatant. The ref literally holds Coggi upright after he gets up, and lets him clear his head completely before allowing the fight to continue. Just awful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xa1uT8fcLs
I remember this well when it happened. i read about it in boxing news and couldn't believe it until the day I received it on a VHS tape. It was the 2nd round that the turmoil started and everyone was in on it. Coggi's corner was allowed to stand on the apron supporting the unable-to-stand Coggi. The timekeeper rings the bell approx. 23 seconds early as well as the next round or two also until Coggi clears his head. The ref is as blatant as they come. This example I would place in the completely crooked official department along with Ramon Berumen, the ref of the first Napoles-Muniz fight. In terms of blind interference i also recall the woeful Carlos Padilla during the Danny Lopez-Mike Ayala fight. Lopez appears to take him out in the 11th - counted out by padilla - and the ring is invaded by well-wishers and staff. Suddenly Padilla confers with the timekeeper or whomever and decides that he didn't count him out afterall and clears the ring and restarts the fight. Lopez' moment is lost and the fight goes another 4 rounds until Lopez stops him for good in the 15th. I don't know, maybe this should be placed in the incompetent category instead of blind interference.
The Ricky Hatton Camp always felt that Ref Joe Cortez impeded his chances by quickly breaking them up when Ricky got inside, Ricky had made it part of his style to "Rag Doll" opponents inside and it did prove an effective if not altogether visually pleasing element of his Game, it could intimidate and demorailise opponents, but of course none of them was Floyd.. but if Cortez had let Ricky's aggression run, it could have made the fight more gruelling for Floyd perhaps. ? I seem to remember The Referee completly Ruining Robin Reid's Challenge to Sven Otteke, (I shall have to refresh my memory on this !)
Walcott butchered Ali-Liston II Juarez-Raheem was ruined by favoritism. Gainer-Norwood ended with a tko ruling after the ref held nor woods arm while gainer repeatedly drilled him in the nuts
I just thought of Steve Smoger reffing Lance Whitaker against Lou Savarese. Whitaker drops Savarese in the 4th and when Smoger counts '8', due to his microphone he is heard audibly saying "C'mon, get up." and beats the count. I really don't think he would have made it without the coaxing. BTW, Savarese took the decision.
In the Benn-McClellan fight the referee was in a daze. Not sure what he was thinking. The whole fight he was never on top of the action. Both fighters bitterly complained to him about low blows, head butts and but he was oblivious to it all. Even when Benn got knocked out of the ring his count was slow. When Gman is blinking uncontrollably & looks in bad shape but he doesn't get involved. That was a great fight and I think that tradegy could have been prevented. Let Gman call it a day. They could always do a rematch in time. A fighters life is worth more than that.
To be fair at that point Ricky was taking man-handling to a whole nother level. The Hatton Tszyu fight was so physical I can't remember a title fight where someone literally bullrushed the other then in the clinch pushed the head up to hit- Ricky did this round after round. Tszyu would fly into the ropes, it was nuts to watch. To Tszyu's credit he never once complained and to this day says that Ricky wanted it more. I really doubt any USA referee would that tyoe of fight to go on. Although I do agree that Cortez took that interpretation of a clean fight too far. Every time Hatton got even close to Floyd he was warning him. Some rough housing is allowed - just watch a Jeff Fenech fight he was a master at that, very rough but just enough within the rules. I even recall one fight Jeff grabbed an opponent and lterally pushed and lifted him to the corner- like saying no you fight here now.
steele was frustratingly inconsistent. he really jumped on Chavez for low blows vs randall deducting a crucial 2 points to end the longest unbeaten run in history, yet let talor hit Chavez low more times than I could count without comment
Exactly! One fight a guy gets rock and he jumps in to stop it too early (i.e. Tyson/Rud****) and and in another fight like Mayweather/Corrales he lets Corrales get knocked down 7 times!!!
