Worst displays by referees

Enjoyed the recent post re Chavez-Taylor, and Richard Steele's decision to stop it when he did, and this got me thinking about the worst performances from referees ,and two fights in particular come to mind; the first being Benn v McCellan. It was clear from as early as round six that something was seriously wrong with McCellan- he was blinking like crazy and kept trying to spit out his gum shield (wrongly interpreted by Jim Watt as having breathing difficulties) two clear signs that his brain was being depleted of oxygen that the ref inexplicably failed to spot. I can remember feeling increasingly nauseous watching it, and telling those watching with me that we were witnessing a man being killed by the ref and his cornermens' utter ineptitude, and we might as well have been, in fact death would probably been the better option given his current predicament. That the ref couldn't speak english, and therefore couldn't comunicate with fighte,was also absurd. I think that there is a good case to be made that refs should be given some training by experts in brain injury/ concussion to help them make more informed decisions about stopping fights- may be they do -can anyone shed any light on that for me?.
The other was the ref in the Hearns -Andries fight, who seemed content to watch Hearns dish out an allmighty beating on an utterly outclassed Andries who was far too brave for his own good, it was a refereeing performance devoid of any compassion for Dennis.
As a tangental point, I wonder if there is a case to be made for the reintroduction of the now almost never used standing 8 count, such as there is in the amateur game. Against is the arguement that the ref jumping in and administrating a standing count can rob the other fighter of a stoppage win, and if that fighter then goes on to lose , then he has been robbed of victory, but on the other hand with no standing count at his diposal the ref only has the choice of stopping it or letting a beating carry on, and that decision sometimes has to be made in an instant without the ref being able to make anything but a snap decisio, and if he chooses to stop it and the fighter turns out to not as hurt as it appeared, then he has a claim to having been robbed- with the standing count option the ref has a proper chance to assess the situation. if the fighter is ok he loses the round 10-8, or and he is hurt the bout gets stopped with out him taking needless punishment. The 3 count in a round rule still applies, and so in effect the ref doesn't need to wait for a knock down- he can pre- empt it . I'll admit a bias to having the standing count option as I'm no fan of watching boxers excess punishment, especially brutal muti punch type knockouts such as suffered by morrison against Mercer.

I'm not sure you guys have ever seen this fight.....But if you ever get to see..

Livingstone Bramble v Tyrone Crawley..WBA light championship....You'll wonder whether Curtis was waiting for Crawley to be put in a coma before stopping it...Same guy who caused a riot in stopping Dokes weaver prematurely..

Victor Cortez Robbed Humberto Soto once it was rediculas.

The bizarre Robin Reid fight was the other. He docked Reid a point for punching Ottke in the face.

Roger Tilleman in Ottke vs Reid
Apart from Cortez i've never seen such disastrous and bias refereeing in a world title fight.

Joe Cortez in Mayweather vs Hatton
Shockingly bias and he was determined to be a celebrity, refused to let Hatton fight his fight throughout, a disgrace who should of never been allowed to referee a fight again. Also the same guy who cost Marlon Starling his WBA title in 1988 against Molinares, the Colombian hit Starling about a second and half after the bell and he gave him the knockout, disastrous control freak type!.

think there are some tough points with these issues. one is that the corner should be more concerned with the safety of there fighters imo. they can throw in the towel at anytime and should be constantly watching and ready. they train everyday in gym with there guys unlike the ref, so if anyone can tell if a fighter is actually hurt or not its likely to be them. secondly refs get stick both ways (early stoppages and late stoppages). i dont know what the guide lines are but there isn't any definied rules, ie so many unanswered punches etc, so guideline need to be given, or refs need to be let off a little for mistakes. as for the standing 8 count- this would actually be worse for a fighter in trouble. for example, if a fighter is taking heavy unanswered fire from a better skilled opponent. without the 8 count he would likely take at most another 5-6 shots before hitting the floor, and because of the intense punishment hits the floor and is out for 10. if on the other hand the ref jumped in and gave a 8 count, giving him time to recover, he will absorb a lot more punishment then he would if just plain out KO'd.

Watch this clip of Duran v Bizaro, how many chances did this ref have to stop the fight? After the 3rd and final knock down/out Bizaro was lucky to be alive, this is one of the worst reffing performances I've seen.

(skip to 5:30 which is where the savagery starts).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYUC3NnaH8I&NR=1

Frig me, that was bloody awful.

KD#1: "Are you OK? You are? Continue then."

KD#2: "Are you OK? I'll assume from your silence you've no objections to continuing. Continue."

KD#3: "Are you OK...ah oh dear. He's dead."

BALTI - did you notice even after the 3rd knock down he sends Bizzaro's trainer out of the ring so he can count Bizzaro out for ten!!!!! - WFT?!! Was he seriously expecting him to get up from that?! Unbelievable, what a clown!

I thought he should have helped him up personally, the ref didn't know how his legs would be, had no right to not at least give him a chance.

It's pretty crazy, you just see Duran come into frame, use his left hand to line up the right, almost as if he was propping him up. I must admit, it highlights exactly what I like about Duran-he was a savage, born to fight. Bizzaro was clearly on queer street after the second knockdown, didn't seem to acknowledge the ref, and yet was sent out again! Steele stopped Taylor when he was that way against JCC, and after seeing THIS video I don't know how anyone can criticise Steele.

Yep agree, Duran was totally and utterly ruthless - no chance of him showing any mercy in a situation like this.

He really was just there for one purpose; to destroy his opponent. See, while I can appreciate boxers who go out to out-box their opponent, I much prefer guys who go out to BEAT the guy, if you know what I mean? Stopping a guy just seems to underline the winner's dominance more somehow.

That ref was a disgrace.