Who Should Ref the PBF vs Cotto bout???

Steve Smoger should pretty much ref any important bout if possible.

 

The ref doesn't matter. It only gives bitter fans an excuse to complain. Fighters win fights, not refs

 

Robin Reid and Emanuel Augustus might disagree with you, among others.

 

How about we wait until there's actually a Mayweather-Cotto bout about to take place.

 

Joe Cortez

 

Any blantant indisgretions committed by ref would be unlikely to occur in a fight of this magnitude.

 

Depends on what you define as indiscretions, but the ref was a big factor in JCC vs Meldrick Taylor and that was a huge fight.

 

Steve Smoger, Tony Weeks

 

Bayless, Weeks or the ref for Vasquez-Marquez 3

 

A bigger factor was Taylor's inablility avoid getting hit as well as his corner telling him he was behind going into the 12th. A slightly smarter gameplan from team Taylor and Taylor wins that fight. The ref only came into play because of the numerous mistakes committed by Taylor. On top of that, the only mistake that Steele made was not being aware that there was so little time left in the round. Even still, he's not a timekeeper. It's his job to make sure guys aren't taking too much punishment. He made uphis mind that Taylor wasn't going to take anymore hits.

 

Steve Smoger

 

It was a judgment call by Steele and has pretty much been acknowledged as a poor one, regardless of Taylor's final round gameplan or his inability to avoid getting hit. Russell just recently was put in a similar situation with Vasquez/Marquez III. There are plenty of other examples, Calzaghe vs Manfredo was on HBO, Manfredo was horrible and had done nothing, but that was pretty big and universally acknowledged as a terrible stoppage. Having a ref that is consistent and lets the fighters truly decide the outcome is important.

 

Weeks didn't ref Vasquez-Marquez 3