By Edward Chaykovsky
There has been some debate on whether or not referee Joe Cortez "verbally instructed" Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz to resume fighting during their controversial fourth round at the MGM Grand last Saturday night. After Ortiz used his head, intentionally, on Mayweather, Cortez took Ortiz to the center of the ring and took away a point. Ortiz, looking to apologize, walked over to give Mayweather a hug, and within a split moment Mayweather would land two punches on a defenseless Ortiz to score a knockout. During video replays, Cortez was shown looking at the timekeeper's table and stating "time in."
After the loss, Ortiz argued that Cortez never told him to resume fighting and that's why his hands were at his side when Mayweather caught him. Cortez admits that he never verbally instructed the boxers, but gave them a hand signal to restart the action.
"I made the signal. You don’t have to say anything. These guys know the rules. Victor made two mistakes. His first one was being a bad boy, and his second one was being too much of a good boy," Cortez told the Los Angeles Times.
