These Quicky Stoppages have Got to STOP

Put it this way. Boxing is a dangerous sport and you already accept a certain amount of risk, a certain number of injuries and deaths for your entertainment. The number of injuries and deaths are more than zero; so you are already making that bargain. Meanwhile, there are other more dangerous sports out there that you also tolerate for entertainment purposes. Obviously, you are okay with a certain level of risk for entertainment reward and boxing isn't even the highest threshold. What's pathetic is your hypocrisy, your willingness to draw an arbitrary line and let boxers get this hurt but not worse.

 

The same ref, Steve Gray, threw the towel out of the ring a couple of weeks back. My guess is he knew what he was doing last night.

 

Hypocricy my ass. Enjoying watching people punch each other and wanting and being okay with them dying or getting permanently hurt are two completely different things. Most sports have their share of risks which the athletes are aware of, and they all have rules to keep it under control. If you want combat without any safety protocol, go watch bar fights on youtube.

 

People questioning referees judgments is way more appalling than any stoppage I've ever seen.

Ok some fights are stopped early but who are we to judge as fans, let the ref do his job and make his decision, whatever it may be.
Beats me why people want to see a risk of serious injury when you have a 268lb guy pummelling shot after shot into an opponent unanswered.

Some people have no sense whatsoever.

 

It wasn't the greatest stoppage and to be honest I think Takam should have been given a chance.

On the other hand people know that if you take too many unanswered punches the fight can be stopped and we all know about the British stoppage. Surely Takam does too. He should have thrown a jab or something, just to show he was in the fight.

Honestly Joyce doesn't impress me much and I think Takam did the better work, just not enough of it. If Carlos was younger I think Joyce might have been stretchered out.

 

Indeed he does. The stoppage against AJ was roast beef British...

 

Takam Joshua stoppage was far worse but I agree was a bit hasty again. Takam was wobbling but still defending himself. You could say the same about Wlad and Joshua, was just a few seconds till the bell there also.

 

Takam is a seasoned professional, he knows that if you take a lot of heavy unanswered punches then the referee will call a halt to proceedings, fight back or lose.

All the gesturing by Takam immediately after the stoppage was called is just that gesturing, put same effort into fighting back rather than being a punch bag for a 260+ pound opponent.

Times, attitudes and opinions change from the bare knuckle toe the line days up to the present, fighters of the bare knuckle era would call the gloved era of Dempsey pussies, and so it goes through the generations.

The likes of Chisora saying Takam should have been given a 8 count rather than stoppage, why would Takam need such a count if he was not hurt or in distress?

There was only one individual other than the contestants in the ring with full view of matters and that was the ref, he decided Takam was not fit to continue, he is not a neurologist, he does not have a MRI scanner to see how fighters brain is holding up, he has to make a decision on the spot at the time where every second that passes another blow is being delivered on a fighter without answer.

How many heavy unanswered punches should a referee allow a fighter to take before stopping a bout?
Some fighters go down after a short burst of heavy punches, however other fighters do not and will only go down if knocked unconscious after heavy punishment, still being on their feet does not mean they are safe, it just means the coup de grace punch has not landed to shut their neuro system off completely.

 

I've watched and rewatched the 6th round and while Takam was still on his feet he wasn't fighting back, he seemed to be hanging on, taking heavy shots, and it was going to end with him on the floor.

If a referee sees a fighter taking punishment and not throwing back or defending himself sufficiently, and the attacking fighter is relentlessly coming forward, it doesn't leave him with many options short of allowing the punishment to continue.

Personally, I think Takam deserved another 10-15 seconds and one more warning to "show me something".

If he rallies, game on...if he continues to take punches without defending himself sufficiently, I'd stop it then.

Of course, it's easy for all us to make judgements after the fact in hindsight.

 

I know, perhaps they should ask Americans how to ju...sorry, I couldn't even finishing typing that.

Fact is, most home(town) fighters have an advantage.

 

Agreed.

There comes a point where you just have to be reasonable - when one guy is taking a lot of shots completely unanswered like that, it's completely reasonable to stop it.

Takam wasn't ever getting back into that - 99% he was getting knocked out by accumulation and 1% he throws a hail mary and wins a fight he completely deserves to lose.

Now sure, that 1% chance is there, but (controversial opinion incoming) until we get away from the idea that KO's are "real" wins and points are not, we're not going to escape this idea that it's still live until the guy is totally incapacitated... When it's clearly very one sided like this, "hit and don't get hit" is well and truly proven and I'm absolutely fine with a ref stepping in to stop the beating.

 

Maybe, but until they are the ref has to follow them and so the stoppage under the current rules is valid whether you agree with it or not.