3 PBC Fights, 3 Questionable Stoppages

[BostonGuy]

Watching last night's PBC fights, I couldn't help but notice how poor the refereeing was last night. I haven't been following boxing too closely for the last 6-8 months so maybe this is the norm nowadays. Here's my take:

Breazeale-Ugonoh - great heavweight scrap between two lower tiered fighters. Dom Breazeale is not the most agile, mobile and skilled fighter but he has always shown his grit, toughness and heart - he doesn't quit, and I like that about him. This is the first time i've seen Izu Ugonoh and he's a solid prospect that has a nice jab and throws good combinations and body punching.

This fight was great; it was back and forth HW action with big punches being landed and some good knockdowns. However, as Breazeale knocked Izu down the second time in the 5th round, the referee automatically waived the fight off without even assessing his condition. Watching the fight in real time, Izu look like he was OK and able to get up. However the ref never gain him the chance.

Hurd-Harrison - This was a good competitive fight where Harrison appeared to be winning the early-to-mid rounds based on his output and accurate punching. Credit to Hurd for making some adjustments and finding a way to land his much harder shots. He turned around the momentum of the fight, started walking Harrison down and pressing for the knockout.

Also, in this fight i thought the ref did a poor job. After being knocked down, Harrison beat the count, responded to the refs questions and looked able to fight on. Harrison then unintentionally or intentionally spit his mouth piece out to the consternation of the ref and the fight was called off. Why was this? Harrison should have been docked a point but not TKO'd.

Wilder-Washington - I've been a fan and apologist of Wilder's since he went pro but last night Deontay looked really awful. He was overly tentative and cautious and his punches looked constricted (maybe due to his muscular physique). Washington looked decent, to my surprise, but not any spectacular and there was never any doubt that Wilder would get his man outa there.

Of the 3 fights, this was the worse stoppage by far. Washington was buzzed but at no point was he helpless or defenseless. Given that this was a title fight, Washington should have been allowed to fight on and survive the round. It was a total overreaction to stop this fight at that point.

Thoughts/opinions? Am I totally off the mark or just in my criticism?

[deathofaclown]

Izu looked totally done to me to be honest, even if he hadn't been sent through the ropes. I felt it was inevitable by that point he was going to be stopped even if he got up.

Washington didn't seem bad enough to be stopped though. That's not to say he wouldn't have been, he was definitely buzzed but wasn't out on his feet in my opinion. I felt the ref had lost control of it a bit at the very end and didn't know if he wanted to stop it or how hurt Washington even was.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Very good night of fights.. great action, even my girl got into it.

Refs were very uncertain and really panicked every time someone was in danger

[-PBP-]

Were the officials from Alabama? Might be an issue of inexperience.

[The Gambler1981]

Washington was done he was staggering all over the place after the ref stopped it and he was pretty trapped along the ropes not really fighting back.

He was done.

[koolkc107]

Watching last night's PBC fights, I couldn't help but notice how poor the refereeing was last night. I haven't been following boxing too closely for the last 6-8 months so maybe this is the norm nowadays. Here's my take:

Breazeale-Ugonoh - great heavweight scrap between two lower tiered fighters. Dom Breazeale is not the most agile, mobile and skilled fighter but he has always shown his grit, toughness and heart - he doesn't quit, and I like that about him. This is the first time i've seen Izu Ugonoh and he's a solid prospect that has a nice jab and throws good combinations and body punching.

This fight was great; it was back and forth HW action with big punches being landed and some good knockdowns. However, as Breazeale knocked Izu down the second time in the 5th round, the referee automatically waived the fight off without even assessing his condition. Watching the fight in real time, Izu look like he was OK and able to get up. However the ref never gain him the chance.

Hurd-Harrison - This was a good competitive fight where Harrison appeared to be winning the early-to-mid rounds based on his output and accurate punching. Credit to Hurd for making some adjustments and finding a way to land his much harder shots. He turned around the momentum of the fight, started walking Harrison down and pressing for the knockout.

Also, in this fight i thought the ref did a poor job. After being knocked down, Harrison beat the count, responded to the refs questions and looked able to fight on. Harrison then unintentionally or intentionally spit his mouth piece out to the consternation of the ref and the fight was called off. Why was this? Harrison should have been docked a point but not TKO'd.

Wilder-Washington - I've been a fan and apologist of Wilder's since he went pro but last night Deontay looked really awful. He was overly tentative and cautious and his punches looked constricted (maybe due to his muscular physique). Washington looked decent, to my surprise, but not any spectacular and there was never any doubt that Wilder would get his man outa there.

Of the 3 fights, this was the worse stoppage by far. Washington was buzzed but at no point was he helpless or defenseless. Given that this was a title fight, Washington should have been allowed to fight on and survive the round. It was a total overreaction to stop this fight at that point.

Thoughts/opinions? Am I totally off the mark or just in my criticism?

I thought Breazeale was extremely fortunate last night.

That being said, I have seen worse stoppages.

And, one of the things I always look for when a ref steps in is the stopped fighter's reaction to being dealt that L.

In all 3 cases you cite from last night, there was no protest that I saw.

In other words, I didnt see Ugonoh, Harrison, or Washington act like something happened that should not have happened.

And BTW, when a ref asks you if you can continue and the only thing you do is spit out your mouthpiece, that is enough to stop a fight. And I think Harrison knew that.

[mlac]

agreed, not to mention Izu got dropped with a kidney shot after the bell went and should of had 5 minutes to recover and breazy a point deducted.

pretty bad all round tbh.

[Eff Pandas]

I think the lack of complaining by the guys who lost suggest they weren't all that early stoppages.

The Harrison stoppage still has me confused to what exactly happened as I thought that fight was a go unless Harrison verbally quit despite him looking like a guy ready to be done for the night. And I'd agree with you that if he didn't verbally quit then you dock a point for the mouthpiece situation and re-start the fight.

The Washington stoppage seemed like it was stopped the most early of the 3, but then again when I'm seeing Washington on big guy Bambi legs after and seemingly fine with the stoppage I can't get very passionate about it being early.

For me there is a big chunk of my early stoppages opinion that is based off of how happy the KO victim is with the decision to stop along with how he's looking + how much damage he was taking/how much trouble he was in. So that being the case I ultimately didn't have a problem with any of them and mainly still just have questions about wtf happened with Harrison and the ref.

[Lopez_Boxing]

Washington and izu were DONE. Harrison I thought was weird, but he didn't seem to upset he walked right over to congratulate Hurd. It's usually the boxers that complain about the stoppages. They ALL seemed ok with them.

[All in]

Watching last night's PBC fights, I couldn't help but notice how poor the refereeing was last night. I haven't been following boxing too closely for the last 6-8 months so maybe this is the norm nowadays. Here's my take:

Breazeale-Ugonoh - great heavweight scrap between two lower tiered fighters. Dom Breazeale is not the most agile, mobile and skilled fighter but he has always shown his grit, toughness and heart - he doesn't quit, and I like that about him. This is the first time i've seen Izu Ugonoh and he's a solid prospect that has a nice jab and throws good combinations and body punching.

This fight was great; it was back and forth HW action with big punches being landed and some good knockdowns. However, as Breazeale knocked Izu down the second time in the 5th round, the referee automatically waived the fight off without even assessing his condition. Watching the fight in real time, Izu look like he was OK and able to get up. However the ref never gain him the chance.

Hurd-Harrison - This was a good competitive fight where Harrison appeared to be winning the early-to-mid rounds based on his output and accurate punching. Credit to Hurd for making some adjustments and finding a way to land his much harder shots. He turned around the momentum of the fight, started walking Harrison down and pressing for the knockout.

Also, in this fight i thought the ref did a poor job. After being knocked down, Harrison beat the count, responded to the refs questions and looked able to fight on. Harrison then unintentionally or intentionally spit his mouth piece out to the consternation of the ref and the fight was called off. Why was this? Harrison should have been docked a point but not TKO'd.

Wilder-Washington - I've been a fan and apologist of Wilder's since he went pro but last night Deontay looked really awful. He was overly tentative and cautious and his punches looked constricted (maybe due to his muscular physique). Washington looked decent, to my surprise, but not any spectacular and there was never any doubt that Wilder would get his man outa there.

Of the 3 fights, this was the worse stoppage by far. Washington was buzzed but at no point was he helpless or defenseless. Given that this was a title fight, Washington should have been allowed to fight on and survive the round. It was a total overreaction to stop this fight at that point.

Thoughts/opinions? Am I totally off the mark or just in my criticism?

Good assessments on the fights. As far as the stoppages. With all of the talk about concussions and long term brain damage. This will be the norm. It's better to stop a fight to soon than to late.