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Joe Cortez should not be the referee for Pacquiao-Cotto superfight
October 12, 11:07 PM Indianapolis Fight Sports Examiner Dennis "dSource" Guillermo
Word is that veteran boxing referee Joe Cortez is one of the referees being considered to be the third man in the ring for Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto's Firepower bout in Las Vegas on November 14.
Upon hearing the news, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach immediately expressed his concern about the Puerto Rican referee and told my tukayo Dennis Principe of the Inquirer,
“Joe Cortez is Puerto Rican and he’s in the running as one of the referees. I don’t want him letting Cotto get away with stuff like that. We’re going to make an issue out of it first,”
Roach was referring to Miguel Cotto's history of using low-blows against his opponents to stop their momentum. Roach further explained,
“Cotto tends to get dirty when the going gets tough in most of his fights and I don’t want that to happen. I will make sure the referee will be very strict about it. Cotto stops his opponents’ momentum with that kind of blow. In that Judah fight he had five low blows,”
Five low blows? Wow, at least Pacquiao already has four kids. Kidding aside, Cortez being Puerto Rican does raise some concern if he was to referee the bout between Puerto Rico's biggest boxing superstar and Pacquiao, but that's not what worries me. Cortez has been in the business longer than I have been a human being so in no way will eye question his professionalism but what concerns me however is his recent track record refereeing fights.
It's not too long ago when Cortez completely blew a fight between Mexican Humberto Soto and Dominican fighter Francisco Lorenzo in the under card of Pacquiao-Diaz wherein he disqualified the Mexican Soto after interrupting an in-pending knockout only to confuse both fighters and then after Soto swung at Lorenzo, in a fight that Soto was absolutely dominating, Cortez disqualified him for a "ghost" late punch. I say ghost because it did not really land and it was Cortez who botched things up anyway by trying to break up both fighters when Lorenzo looked like he was on the way down as if he was going to stop the fight only to back up as if nothing happened.
Now I wouldn't accuse Cortez of being racist like Soto did after the bout when he said the Boricua referee favored the Boricua fighter, but I would have to say that whether it's because of his age or whatever other reason, and with the magnitude of a fight such as Pacquiao-Cotto, I simply feel that there are other more competent referees out there such as Tony Weeks and Kenny Bayless that can do the job seamlessly.
The Sotto incident is not the first nor the last time Cortez's competence was questioned. Juan Manuel Marquez's camp have expressed their disapproval of Cortez in the past and the last thing we need in boxing is for another mega-fight to be tainted by referees. I have nothing personal against Cortez but to steal the line he has popularized, I'm simply calling it how I see it and being "fair but firm" with my analysis.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1...tto-superfight
October 12, 11:07 PM Indianapolis Fight Sports Examiner Dennis "dSource" Guillermo
Word is that veteran boxing referee Joe Cortez is one of the referees being considered to be the third man in the ring for Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto's Firepower bout in Las Vegas on November 14.
Upon hearing the news, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach immediately expressed his concern about the Puerto Rican referee and told my tukayo Dennis Principe of the Inquirer,
“Joe Cortez is Puerto Rican and he’s in the running as one of the referees. I don’t want him letting Cotto get away with stuff like that. We’re going to make an issue out of it first,”
Roach was referring to Miguel Cotto's history of using low-blows against his opponents to stop their momentum. Roach further explained,
“Cotto tends to get dirty when the going gets tough in most of his fights and I don’t want that to happen. I will make sure the referee will be very strict about it. Cotto stops his opponents’ momentum with that kind of blow. In that Judah fight he had five low blows,”
Five low blows? Wow, at least Pacquiao already has four kids. Kidding aside, Cortez being Puerto Rican does raise some concern if he was to referee the bout between Puerto Rico's biggest boxing superstar and Pacquiao, but that's not what worries me. Cortez has been in the business longer than I have been a human being so in no way will eye question his professionalism but what concerns me however is his recent track record refereeing fights.
It's not too long ago when Cortez completely blew a fight between Mexican Humberto Soto and Dominican fighter Francisco Lorenzo in the under card of Pacquiao-Diaz wherein he disqualified the Mexican Soto after interrupting an in-pending knockout only to confuse both fighters and then after Soto swung at Lorenzo, in a fight that Soto was absolutely dominating, Cortez disqualified him for a "ghost" late punch. I say ghost because it did not really land and it was Cortez who botched things up anyway by trying to break up both fighters when Lorenzo looked like he was on the way down as if he was going to stop the fight only to back up as if nothing happened.
Now I wouldn't accuse Cortez of being racist like Soto did after the bout when he said the Boricua referee favored the Boricua fighter, but I would have to say that whether it's because of his age or whatever other reason, and with the magnitude of a fight such as Pacquiao-Cotto, I simply feel that there are other more competent referees out there such as Tony Weeks and Kenny Bayless that can do the job seamlessly.
The Sotto incident is not the first nor the last time Cortez's competence was questioned. Juan Manuel Marquez's camp have expressed their disapproval of Cortez in the past and the last thing we need in boxing is for another mega-fight to be tainted by referees. I have nothing personal against Cortez but to steal the line he has popularized, I'm simply calling it how I see it and being "fair but firm" with my analysis.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1...tto-superfight
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