Kenny Bayless. I am just tired of the Hatton crew blaming Joe Cortez for his KO loss to Mayweather. Refs as you seen tonight can affect a fight alot more than Joe Cortez did in the Hatton vs. Mayweather fight. I am talking about the ref that stopped the Ndou and Malignaggi fight cuz of paulies hair. If he wants to wear dreads to fight thats fine but he must continue to fight regardless. And the Hatton vs. Lazcano fight had just as bad a ref. He was instructing the fighters how to fight like he was the teacher and the fighters where the students. When you don'tnotice a ref is when you know he is good. And to be honest Joe Cortez was a good ref on that night.
Kenny Bayless. No doubt about it.
Kenny Bayless is 58 years old...! God, that man is in good shape. He was an All-American track star in college, though.
Steve Smoger is great.. and a great guy. Superior Court Judge, you know. I met him this year after a fight and he was gracious and posed for pictures- if I knew he was a judge then, I'd have called him "your honor". Smoger lets action rule out.
Arthur Mercente Jr. is good- no-nonsense, he frequently yells at guys like Zab Judah to "suck it up" and "act like a champion". And I'm a Judah fan, believe it or not.
Tony Weeks is cool... these are the Top 4, in my opinion.
If you watched the Cotto Pac fight and disagree let me know why? I think he was smart enouigh to allow Cotto a chance. When Miguel only wanted to finish the fight and Manny's new found aggresion to not allow it to take the distance Bayless made his move and stopped the fight. We can argue when or if he should have stopped the fight of course but the right decision was made IMO. I also wanted it to go 12 rounds it would have saved me 100k on points but Cotto's health isn't worth 100k in points.
If I were able to show you this incident (I'll look on Youtube later, it was an HBO fight), you would probably find his actions inappropriate and biased. Sort of like when Laurence Cole got suspended when he coached Marquez about his options. Generally Smoger is a fine referee though.
that guy is the worst of the bunch..
Smoger loves to see a fight.
I would be doing the same thing. I hope no one ever get's seriously injured while Smoger is the ref. Better yet, I hope no one get's injured seriously regardless of who the ref is. I love Smoger because he has been in the middle of some of the greatest fights I have ever witnessed.
Smoger don't give a fuck who wins, he just wants to see a mother fucker get knocked the phuk out, like the rest of us do.
If I were able to show you this incident (I'll look on Youtube later, it was an HBO fight), you would probably find his actions inappropriate and biased. Sort of like when Laurence Cole got suspended when he coached Marquez about his options. Generally Smoger is a fine referee though.
What have you seen him do?
I saw Smoger encourage house fighter Lou Savarese to beat the 10 count in a fight he won against Lance Whitaker. He practically helped him up.
Bayless is my choice. He is getting better all the time and I'd rate his integrity the highest. Smoger is a good fan's referee but I've seen him do some shady things.
What have you seen him do?
Bayless is my choice. He is getting better all the time and I'd rate his integrity the highest. Smoger is a good fan's referee but I've seen him do some shady things.
Smoger and Bayless are two of the best.
Cortez? Even before Mayweather-Hatton, he was slipping. He did a terrible job in Quartey-Bojorquez, letting Ike just beat the shit out of Bojorquez and not stopping it, then deciding to stop it with a minute left in the fight. Even Larry Merchant was calling for a stoppage a couple of rounds earlier. Cortez did a similar "let the guy beat the shit out of someone and not stop it until too late" a year later during Williams-Pakau. He bent over backwards for Hopkins for the 3rd Allen fight after B-Hop's threats to pull out of the fight. He was way too harsh on Allen. The point deduction on Castillo against Hatton was rather harsh as well.
Funny how everyone came crying about how Cortez was such a bad ref when Mayweather kicked Hatton's ass (even if Cortez did a better job, do you really think Hatton wins?), but no one said anything when Cortez did worse jobs when he stood there and let guys like Bojorquez and Pakau take way too much punishment until finally stopping it.