Steve Smoger was a disgrace and should be retired

Hahahaha....Smoger told Murat "I'm tired of your ****". Dude is a G. Always been my favorite ref. Pure throwback.

It's Hopkins to tell you the truth, a lot of what Murat was doing was in retaliation. Hopkins was hitting him low when Smoger was blindsided, Hopkins is also an expert at hitting his opponents during the break...all without being seen. Yeah it's messed up but admittingly those are some of the things I admire about Hopkins, he knows how to get into his opponent's head. Not only is he tricky at fighting dirty, he's quick to play victim. That said I really enjoyed watching Hopkins, his reflexes have slowed considerably and I think sooner than later he's gonna end up getting hurt, maybe even seriously hurt. What about when he does it right infront of the referee and the referee watches him do it and maybe even throws in "Good job, Bern".

#BanSmoger

The problem I had with Smoger is that even when he did see it, he wasn't interested. It seemed like he had so much respect for Hopkins, that he lost sight of his own neutral position. I think Smoger is one of the best, but he didn't have a good night. Talk of retirement is wide of the mark though. If we retired a fighter, ref or judge every time they had a bad night we'd have none left. I think Smoger's age is catching up to him though. He seemed indecisive and behind the action most of the fight. Based on what I saw last night I wouldn't want to see him in another major fight; particularly one in which he happens to be a fan of one of the fighters. Very unprofessional IMO.

Murat said that it was like he was fighting 2 guys in the ring http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/27/article-0-1903295A00000578-908_634x423.jpg

Hopkins is a master of fighting dirty without getting caught. So is Floyd

It's Hopkins to tell you the truth, a lot of what Murat was doing was in retaliation. Hopkins was hitting him low when Smoger was blindsided, Hopkins is also an expert at hitting his opponents during the break...all without being seen. Yeah it's messed up but admittingly those are some of the things I admire about Hopkins, he knows how to get into his opponent's head. Not only is he tricky at fighting dirty, he's quick to play victim. That said I really enjoyed watching Hopkins, his reflexes have slowed considerably and I think sooner than later he's gonna end up getting hurt, maybe even seriously hurt. No its the refs fault dude. Its no secret like you said that BHops likes to make it an ugly fight and he does so many little things that piss off his opponents that they loose track of their game plan and are more worried about what Hops is going to do. With that said the ref should know better that

The problem I had with Smoger is that even when he did see it, he wasn't interested. It seemed like he had so much respect for Hopkins, that he lost sight of his own neutral position. I think Smoger is one of the best, but he didn't have a good night. Talk of retirement is wide of the mark though. If we retired a fighter, ref or judge every time they had a bad night we'd have none left. Great post, well put.

Smoger was sick and tired of Murat's antics and lashed out. Murat was a garbage fighter and kept punching after Smoger was breaking them up at least ten times. At the end of the fight, and one other occasion he intentionally tried to head butt Hopkins. At least he didn't DQ him. Smoger reacted out of character for sure but he's a top 3 ref in the world and doesn't need to retire. He just needs to leave his emotions out of the fights. That said, the ref pushing a fighter back to his corner with his face is not acceptable and should at least be scolded publically and allowed to apologize for this.

The problem I had with Smoger is that even when he did see it, he wasn't interested. It seemed like he had so much respect for Hopkins, that he lost sight of his own neutral position. I think Smoger is one of the best, but he didn't have a good night. Talk of retirement is wide of the mark though. If we retired a fighter, ref or judge every time they had a bad night we'd have none left. Murat was also lucky he didn't lose a point for swinging when Hopkins was down, I believe he threw two punches.

The last thing wasn't uncalled for. Murat tried an Ortiz-esque jumping headbutt after the bell that ended the fight, right as Smoger was inbetween. I bet some butthurt refs may have dq'd him right there for that.

It's Hopkins to tell you the truth, a lot of what Murat was doing was in retaliation. Hopkins was hitting him low when the Smoger was blindsided, Hopkins is also an expert at hitting his opponents during the break...all without being seen. The problem I had with Smoger is that even when he did see it, he wasn't interested. It seemed like he had so much respect for Hopkins, that he lost sight of his own neutral position. I think Smoger is one of the best, but he didn't have a good night. Talk of retirement is wide of the mark though. If we retired a fighter, ref or judge every time they had a bad night we'd have none left.

Hopkins is a master of fighting dirty without getting caught.

Smoger's style is to stand back and let the 2 guys fight, but they took advantage and started doing dirty little things throughout the fight

Half the dudes on here would pick Smoger to ref every big fight since he lets them fight on the inside. I'm one of them, still the best ref in my opinion. Cortez is also a bit underrated, I know he's made some crazy mistakes but you actually need him when two fighters with absolutely no inside game keep getting tangled up, that's when Cortez is perfect.

It's Hopkins to tell you the truth, a lot of what Murat was doing was in retaliation. Hopkins was hitting him low when Smoger was blindsided, Hopkins is also an expert at hitting his opponents during the break...all without being seen. Yeah it's messed up but admittingly those are some of the things I admire about Hopkins, he knows how to get into his opponent's head. Not only is he tricky at fighting dirty, he's quick to play victim. That said I really enjoyed watching Hopkins, his reflexes have slowed considerably and I think sooner than later he's gonna end up getting hurt, maybe even seriously hurt.

I agree. he bullied murat by shoving him around a few times and never was in control of the fight. good thing it never got ugly n there. we need a new breed of refs picked by the fans.