Rivera To Protest Juanma vs Salido Ref, Not Arum

By Rey Colon

There is a growing debate with the referee Robert Ramirez's decision to stop Saturday's fight between Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido. The Mexican boxer had Juanma against the ropes and was landing big punches. Juanma was hurt but still appeared to be throwing back. Juanma's co-promoter Peter Rivera plans to protest the ref's decision to stop the fight with the Puerto Rico Boxing Commission, while the other co-promoter, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, has dissociated himself from the critics who are going after the referee.

"I'm just the promoter and I do not interfere with the decisions of the commission. That's my job, to promote. The fighters do their job and the commission has theirs. The performance of the referee is for the commission to evaluate. That's not my problem," said Arum.

However, Rivera said that he protested the appointment of Ramirez as the ref and had earlier advised the commission that Rivera was not experienced enough to handle such a major fight. 

"The chairman of the commission (Dommys Delgado) knows what I said, the reason I had wanted to use another referee. Only they know why they ignored our request," he added.