Calzaghe - Lacy ref job

[Burner]

why should the fight have been stopped if Calzaghe doesnt hurt anyone and just slaps?

Let me slap you in the face multiple times and lets see how long you take it.

[kayjay]

So if you think the referee should have stopped the fight, what does that say about Lacy's corner?

Exactly.

It should have been stopped at the end of the seventh round. That was the most brutal moment of the fight, and Lacy was too spent to land any big shots for the rest of the fight.

But as you say it's the corner's job before it is the ref's

[BrooklynBomber]

The fight WAS sadistic. I mean it was even more sadistic to watch then Vitaly/Williams, or Wlad/Byrd. There were so many punches landed.

[Degsy]

If you watch the fight, you can see Gary Shaw keep getting out of his seat in the later rounds. He seems to be remonstrating with Dan Birmingham to throw in the towel. I think Warren has pulled the fight off You Tube again, so I'll have to sort through my old videos to check. Do you reckon that contributed to Lacy splitting with Shaw, who up to that point seemed like a father figure to him?

[Scott9945]

If you watch the fight, you can see Gary Shaw keep getting out of his seat in the later rounds. He seems to be remonstrating with Dan Birmingham to throw in the towel. I think Warren has pulled the fight off You Tube again, so I'll have to sort through my old videos to check. Do you reckon that contributed to Lacy splitting with Shaw, who up to that point seemed like a father figure to him?

For some reason Lacy hates Shaw, who did a damn good job promoting him. He recently fired Bimingham as well. Jeff's career looks to be unraveling to me.

[Kris Silver]

It seems the refs can't do any right. I agree Manfredo could have gone on a bit but he wasn't firing back, another 10 secs would've been worse, to the point most would have agreed there on a stoppage. So that's not that big a deal really.

On Lacy, well I agree theres some valid points, but you have to look at other factors overall. Lacy rarely if ever, looked like being knocked out, or even majorly hurt. One may disagree, but he didn't wobble massively, his eyes were there, he was there in the fight, just not as he and many expected. Being so outboxed shocked Lacy and many viewers. Doesn't mean Lacy was hurt enough for the ref to have stopped it though. Lacy or the corner could have, clearly they decided to carry on thinking Lacy could still KO, which was a possibility.

There were a few moments like in round 7, whereby a few more punches with some weight, maybe, the ref would have stopped it. This happened later aswell. It always came just short. It's as if Joe didn't continue the flurry too much to the point there was no return punches, because he was gaining himself, from the master class.

It was also as if Lacy was intentionally ducking, diving, holding, moving, punching back, right at the moments whereby a ref might start to be thinking, hang on, might have to stop this. Many fighters are concious of such a thing of doing what it takes to stay in the fight, especially someone with the heart and determination of Lacy. I think that's what we saw.