The Garcia Haney ref

I know there's another topic about the ref. And I'm not claiming the ref was prefect, but I thought overall the ref did a good job.

This was a difficult match to officiate. There was a lot of clinching and arm pulling, Ryan kept turning sideways on Haney (more on that later), and there was the point deduction.

A lot of people are criticizing the ref saying he was biased and protecting Haney. I don't agree. While many situations were debatable, I don't think he was biased. I think he was just trying to adjudicate the match as fairly as he could. He had a difficult job.

I had absolutely no problem with him giving Ryan that point deduction in the 7th. Ryan clearly intentionally hit on the break. Ryan's adrenaline was high there and he was trying to get Haney out of there, but it was cleraly a cheap shot and the ref did well to issue a point deduction straight away. At the time we were all excited and it gave Haney a respite, but it was a foul by Ryan, so I have no issue with that.

The first time Ryan started to turn sideways on Haney and Haney proceeded to hit Ryan in the back, the ref warned Haney to hitting in the back. Haney of course said but he was turning his back. He was.

Then as the fight wore on the ref recognized this and no longer warned Haney when he hit the back. He may have warned Ryan a few times about turning his back. But that semeed to be a very effective strategy for Ryan, who didn't seemed bothered at all by the direct lower back shots. Though when Haney started digging in the kidney, that prompted Ryan to fire back. Still an effective strategy nonetheless from Ryan.

As far as the knockdowns, as I govered in the RBR topic, I don't really take issue with not giving Ryan more knockdowns. And again I think that goes back to the fact that, Haney managed to effectively clinch and hug Ryan before eventually falling.

While some of you may have a different view of these instances (and I'd like to hear your view of that) I see it as yes a punch landed, yes he went down, but the logic behind not ruling those a knockdowns were the fact that he managed to clinch for long enough and held on before going down.

I just see al ot of people criticizing the ref and I thought overall he did a good job and seemed pretty fair. And if you don't think he was, keep in mind he had a very difficult job in this match.

I put a poll up to see what ya'll think of the ref. And if you vote, if you vote you think he did a good job, that doesn't mean you have to agree with every one of his decisions, just that you think he tried to be fair to the best of his ability and wasn't being clearly biased in favor of either fighter as some are alleging.

 

It wasn't a low blow, so 5 minutes wasn't required for that foul. I had no issue with him deducting a point straight away and then ordering an immediate re-start.

 

I respect your opinion ellerbe and I think you make a fair point. Like I said, I'm not too sure about it myself, but after some thought, I concluded that I thought the ref did a good job. Not perfect, and i certainly respect those who say he saved Haney. But I personally thought his decisions were justified. But I'm interested in anyone who sees it differently and could explain why.

 

It's an interesting point you make, I'm not entirely sure myself, but at the time I didn't have a problem with it. Would like to get some other opinions on this.

But let me ask you on this, on the point deduction itself, did you have a problem with that?

 

Well I appreciate that you disagreed at first on my take on Canelo GGG 1 then stepped back, reevaluated and eventually agreed. On this one, I'm a little conflicted about it. I don't take issue with those who say the ref saved Haney, but at the same time I'm not sure I agree. I thought he did a good job overall. And no I'm not trying to be a contrarian here, I genuinely thought the ref did a good job overall. But I'm not saying anyone who disagrees is wrong. I think this is very detabable which is why I put it to a poll. I guess I want to see how many people were OK with his decisions. I know there are a lot of people criticizing the referee, I don't agree with that but I can understand that perspective. I think he had a tough job and did a good job overall.

OK well I respect your opinion ellerbe. I'm glad you agree with some of my takes and it's OK for you to disagree with me here. I guess my question to you is, what specifically did you have a problem with?

Did you have an issue with the point deduction, or just the times he didn't rule knockdowns when he could? I'm guessing you don't agree that Haney clinching for a couple seconds and holding on before dropping was enough to avoid the KD. Perhaps we can take a look at the rulebook in regards to situations like that. My understanding is that after receiving a punch, it's a knockdown if you go down soon after that. The fact that Haney clinched for a while and hung on before going down allowed him to avoid subsequence knockdowns. But I'm not claiming to be right here, I'm merely putting this to ya'll to see what ya'll think about that.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the ref warned Haney for punching Garcia in the back of the head once when Ryan did that lol. We definitely need to take a deep dive into the whole Ryan turning sideways angle.

 

So in your view, Haney hanging on for deal life after being hit before dropping isn't enough to avoid it being ruled a KD? I wonder how many people here agree with you. (probably a lot lol)

I get that view, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but I did recognize the fact that Haney did manage to legitimately clinch and hold on for a good amount of time before going down. It's not like he went down right away from those shots which surely made it a difficult call for the ref as to whether to rule those a KD or not.