Let's Settle This, Early Stoppage Or Not?

[New England]

you guys understand that head trauma can kill people, right?


i know it's been a while since somebody on a major network was seriously injured or killed in a fight, but if you watch boxing long enough it will happen in your lifetime.

abner mares is a 27 year old man with a family. despite what boxers say, they don't want to die in the ring. they want to go home. they want to fight again.


great stoppage. great win for gonzalez, too.

[techliam]

Sorry hardcore Mares fans, it wasn't an early stoppage. It's not even really a close one either, the fight needed to be stopped when it did.

I'm a bit shocked too, I was big on Mares. But the guy took a huge left hook and instantly went down. It just shows you how hard Gonzales punches. Afterwards, he took at least 5 full power shots flush, where he could hardly defend himself, and a nice flush right hand straight to the temple. He landed awkwardly on his right leg, and his eyes just weren't there. As a referee, you need to know this guy is able to fight on, against a massive puncher, to know he's going to be alright. Noone in their right mind would have thought Mares could do that.

I'm actually shocked these "was it an early stoppage?" posts even surfaced.... its just bitterness

[oc9979]

I have never seen Marquez look that out of it. Mares looks like he was on a different planet. Body language says it all, that dude was done no questions asked, adios.

I was thinking the same thing when I read that comment. JMM has been of his feet but he did not look hurt at all vs Pacquiao.

[Bermuda]

no i don't think so....mares was dropped hard and hurt by the first knockdown alone..and the second sealed it...maybe if mares did get up he would have been dropped hard again and sustained more unnecessary damage.

[BendOver]

Ok, let's get this sorted, I'm hearing some saying last night was an early stoppage in the Mares/Gonzalez main event. What do you guys think? Time for a poll.

In my opinion it was an early stoppage, Mares was the champion, in a championship fight of such magnitude, you have to let it go on, imagine if the ref had stopped the fight after the first 3 KDs in Pac/JMM 1 or after Barker looked like he was finished against Geale, in fact Barker looked in worse shape after that KD than Mares in both his KDs.

The moment the ref placed his hand on Mares' shoulder, you could tell Mares was shocked, meaning he knew where he was, what had happened and what it all meant, Mares was ok. Yes he was hurt but there were less than 10 secs left in the round, Mares would have had a minute to recover and we've all seen Mares can recover. The ref was, in all honesty, quite **** last night, I reckon he'd be scared of his own shadow.

Having said that, massive cong**** to Gonzalez, a solid, long serving pro who doesn't quite get the recognition he should. I always knew it was going to be a war but I expected Mares to stop Gonzalez late but the vet came out bombing. With the BS ref stoppage, there needs to be a rematch.

Do you want him to get decapitated? When asked how that happens the answer was "I don't remember", the guy was out...

[-PBP-]

People hate Mares so bad that they want him to die from head trauma?

Disgusting.

[Rico1965]

I didn't see Mares complain about the stoppage, he was very professional taking the loss which made me become a fan.......I hope he comes back stronger

[New England]

I didn't see Mares complain about the stoppage, he was very professional taking the loss which made me become a fan.......I hope he comes back stronger

that he comes back? count on that.

that he's stronger when he comes back? don't count on that.

[FeFist]

If I was Mares I would be happy with the early stoppage, even if he could have won it would be an uphill battle from that point on, he'd end up taking damage that would ultimately shorten his career. Seeing as it was not a career defining fight, that course of action would have been pointless.

[HarvardBlue]

Why is there even a discussion on whether or not it was stopped early? By the looks of things the ref could have stopped it after the first KD. He had to tell at Mares to put his hands up. This is starting to look like the "lucky punch" argument. Plenty of fights were stopped way too early but this isn't one of them.