By Keith Terceira
Ron Resnick of Resnick Productions LLC. spoke with BoxingScene yesterday and offered his view as to what occurred in the tenth and final round of the Figueroa- Cuevas title bout.
Resnick the promoter for this event has a different take on what transpired in the ring and spoke with the referee after the card ended.
“I’m not sure if I have the opposite view point, the right or wrong viewpoint, I can tell you what I saw, and what the officials told me. “ Resnick replied when beginning our interview.
Resnick: “ As far as what happened in the tenth round Figueroa went down on a slip , he twisted his ankle basically and went down. He wasn’t even near Cuevas, when he went down, it wasn’t a punch, it wasn’t from anything, Brodsky claims that the kid was dehydrated or exhausted and that is not the case.”
BoxingScene: Pete Brodsky claims that he may have been exhausted !
Resnick: “I believe both fighters may have been tired. In fact after Figueroa got up and finished the fight he won the rest of the fight. He completely caught Cuevas with a bunch of power shots at the end of the fight.
Anyway Francisco went down from a twisted ankle. He went to the doctor for a swollen twisted ankle. That was the injury that caused him to go to the canvas. As he fell to the canvas the referee waved it off as a slip, that I saw for myself and I did confirm that with the referee, he waved it as a slip. Now it was taking Figueroa a while to get up, under the self injury rule a boxer who twists an ankle or hurts himself without a punch or anything its under the referee’s discretion from what I understand..
The referee can call the doctor into the ring ask the fighter if he can continue. Now that wasn't the case, the referee went back to Figueroa and said heh you got to get up and continue. At that point Figueroa started to get up. When he got up, I saw that he had gotten up and limped over to the neutral corner. Like he was ready to fight again and at that point the doctor had already walked up on the apron, so he brought the fighter over to the doctor. The doctor looked at him and said there is nothing wrong with this kid let him fight. The doctor asked him are you ok to continue and he said yes. There was a delay, I understand , at the time Brodsky was screaming and hollering, for whatever reason.
BoxingScene: Was there a count administered at any point?
Resnick: I don’t believe they started a count. I asked the official after the fight what happened and he claimed to me “I waved it as a slip, I walked over to the boxer to tell him he had to get up. I was going to start a count and he got up before I could begin starting a count” that was the answer that the referee gave me.
Now the question is are you supposed to start a count or if it’s a self - inflicted injury do you not even count. In the self injury rule you don’t start a count.
BoxingScene: You always start a count and stop the clock immediately, if I read all the boxing rules right.! Even if you are only going to wipe the kids gloves off on a slip, you must officially stop the action to protect the fighters and rule out a fighter playing possum to gain a break.
Resnick: I am assuming that the alternate official was to start a count when the kid went down and when the referee waved it off, he stopped the count, I’m assuming.
BoxingScene: I believe that is one of the things everyone in Cuevas’ camp is concerned about. The opinion was that it took quite a while before the clock was stopped and that it took some time off the clock.
Resnick: Honestly , I can’t get into anymore details other than what I saw myself. I can’t tell you if they started a count or didn’t start a count. Did it make a difference? Figueroa was winning the whole fight in my opinion. He was landing the bigger cleaner punches. He was stronger in there.
BoxingScene: Wait now please, We have to admit it was a split decision and if it had been in all honesty a delayed reaction to a punch instead of a slip it would have given Cuevas a 10-8 round and it would have changed the judges scores.
Resnick: No way it was from a punch .
BoxingScene: I do have to look at this from both sides Ron to be fair.
Resnick: Figueroa was moving around the ring and was no where near Cuevas when he went down, it was after if anything when Francisco finished punching. He was moving around he didn’t get hit.
BoxingScene: Cuevas confirmed yesterday that it was in the middle of action it occurred after an exchange and Frankie moved a couple of steps around him.
Resnick: I’m sure the tape will show that it wasn’t a delayed reaction to a punch, and it wasn’t from a foul. Basically he tripped on his own ankle. His ankle got caught on the canvas and turned sideways, he went to the doctor for his ankle.
BoxingScene: Can you tell us how Frankie is, I understand that this was a great fight and a war in the style of Gatti-Ward?
Resnick: These guys were in a war. Absolutely in the style of Gatti-Ward. It was a fantastic battle of heart and will. We never expected this type of fight out of Cuevas, both of them fought with so much heart that it was unbelievable. I mean it was a fight that you want to see. Figueroa after the fight was beat up , he was tired, his ankle hurt, his hands hurt and his face was swollen. It was a battle. He went thru a war. Cuevas took the harder of the shots, so I’m sure he was in pretty rough shape as well.
BoxingScene: What are the chances of a rematch between these two if it was such a great battle?
Resnick: That would be up to ShoBox or HBO, because to put my kid in a war like that again it has got to be for something. I’m telling you for a small club show with no TV it doesn’t make sense. If the media creates enough buzz where the people want to see it , then the question is yes. Realisticly Francisco is a 140 pounder we went up in weight and Cuevas came down a little. So we are giving up some size amnd weight in the ring. The reason that we took it was we didn’t think it was going to be as tough a fight as it was.
BoxingScene: Allen Conyers can testify to the toughness of Cuevas though?
Resnick: Yep, he sure did, I saw Cuevas get knocked out by Russell Jordan who is a pretty good puncher and used to be my fighter. I think Francisco is a bigger puncher. We thought that if Jordan could KO this kid then Figueroa could definitely take him out. We misjudged Cuevas’ strength, ability , and heart. It was all heart more than anything. We knew he was a good boxer. He had determination, and heart and he took a lot of shots that would have buckled anybody. It got to the point in this fight where there was no more boxing, it turned into a war. These guys were just pounding each other. I’m assuming there is going to be a hearing and a protest but we will have to see what the outcome will be. I’m confident that the thing was handled properly. From what I know of the rules its referee’s discretion . I understand Brodsky’s complaint but I can’t see anybody taking the belt from a kid on a technicality when he won the fight. These guys both fought their heart out. They left it all on the canvas.
BoxingScene: Thanks for your time today Ron
Resnick: Thank you.
On a side note, I will next attempt to contact the judges for this fight to get their take on this close decision .
Truthfully in my opinion when a war is this tough sometimes all that is the defining moment to call a winner is the rules, the technicalities. To much in boxing is subjective, a judges opinion or viewpoint can make the difference, what keeps it fair in the ring is that the rules apply to both parties and the referee is the custodian of those rules. People live or die every die based on technicalities applied by judges in our courts, one such issue is that the WBC mandates it be ten rounds, 3 minutes a round not nine rounds at 3 minutes and a tenth at 2:30 or at 4. Without technicalities we have not boxing but glorified tough man competitions.
One of the oldest tricks in the book is to fake injury or spit out a mouthpiece to get time to get your breath or recover.
I am not saying that happened in this case, what I am saying is that is why we have rules and referees to administer them fairly.
What I ask of Resnick Productions is to help the public decide by sending us a copy of this great battle so we can put it up on BoxingScene for the boxing fans to see and judge for themselves.
Kterceira@boxingscene.com
