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The knee gave Reiss an impression, so he continued the count. He said that Fury made eye contact as soon as he was over him, which gave him the assurance that Fury was conscious. Whether the eye contact was strong or not, if your unconscious you're not gonna make any eye contact.
He also gave an explanation for getting down and showing the count in front of his face; to ensure Fury could hear the count and on the event that he couldn't, he had his hands in his face to visualise the count. I think that should be standard procedure if you ask me. When the crowd goes mental fighters often say they misheard a count.
I'm not saying there's fairness around all boxing stoppages, definitely not, because there's major inconsistencies with how individual referee's handle things. On top of that, different commissions and sanctioning bodies have different rules regarding stoppages, they're not universal. I know that with the WBC, a referee is allowed to stop a fight if one guy is ten points behind. In some, the referee can stop a fight if they deem a fighter has no realistic chance of winning, whether they're taking severe damage or not.
Just to note, I was wanting Whyte to win. I was a bit gutted when he got bombed out, but it was the right call by the referee. A good comparison for Fury would be Wilder vs. Breazeale. Breazeale went down in equally devastating fashion, rose to his feet before the count of ten and seemed to be stable, but it was stopped without any additional checks. Breazeale would have gone down within seconds of getting back up but the guy looked fit to continue, so I think that was a bad stoppage.
Stoppages by cuts are usually (not always) determined by if it affects the fighters ability to fight, which it didn't in Fury vs. Wallin. It was a gruesome cut, but blood wasn't continuously leaking into the eye to the point where Fury couldn't see. And the cut wasn't deemed to be in a place where it would cause permanent damage, as in loss of sight.
The thing with concussion is, unless a fighter is completely unconscious, the only ways to determine if a fighter is concussed is ask them a question and ask them to walk to the side (which is now a mandatory check following a heavy knockdown), both of which Reiss did and both of which Fury adequately responded to. If a fighter remains conscious, doesn't slur his speech and can communicate, doesn't have balance issues, then the only way to know if he's concussed is if he says, which most fighters won't. Also, the effects of concussion are in most cases, not immediate. They often occur days after an injury. So safeguarding against concussion, in most cases, is impossible if there's no symptoms. Every punch doesn't result in a concussion, every knockdown doesn't result in a concussion. Safety is important, but being overly safe would ruin the sport.
As I've said before, Jack Reiss is the fairest and most safety conscious referee there is. If all referee's were personally trained by Jack Reiss then things would be different. I also think that if he was the third man for Whyte vs. Povetkin, he would have more than likely made the same decision.
He also gave an explanation for getting down and showing the count in front of his face; to ensure Fury could hear the count and on the event that he couldn't, he had his hands in his face to visualise the count. I think that should be standard procedure if you ask me. When the crowd goes mental fighters often say they misheard a count.
I'm not saying there's fairness around all boxing stoppages, definitely not, because there's major inconsistencies with how individual referee's handle things. On top of that, different commissions and sanctioning bodies have different rules regarding stoppages, they're not universal. I know that with the WBC, a referee is allowed to stop a fight if one guy is ten points behind. In some, the referee can stop a fight if they deem a fighter has no realistic chance of winning, whether they're taking severe damage or not.
Just to note, I was wanting Whyte to win. I was a bit gutted when he got bombed out, but it was the right call by the referee. A good comparison for Fury would be Wilder vs. Breazeale. Breazeale went down in equally devastating fashion, rose to his feet before the count of ten and seemed to be stable, but it was stopped without any additional checks. Breazeale would have gone down within seconds of getting back up but the guy looked fit to continue, so I think that was a bad stoppage.
Stoppages by cuts are usually (not always) determined by if it affects the fighters ability to fight, which it didn't in Fury vs. Wallin. It was a gruesome cut, but blood wasn't continuously leaking into the eye to the point where Fury couldn't see. And the cut wasn't deemed to be in a place where it would cause permanent damage, as in loss of sight.
The thing with concussion is, unless a fighter is completely unconscious, the only ways to determine if a fighter is concussed is ask them a question and ask them to walk to the side (which is now a mandatory check following a heavy knockdown), both of which Reiss did and both of which Fury adequately responded to. If a fighter remains conscious, doesn't slur his speech and can communicate, doesn't have balance issues, then the only way to know if he's concussed is if he says, which most fighters won't. Also, the effects of concussion are in most cases, not immediate. They often occur days after an injury. So safeguarding against concussion, in most cases, is impossible if there's no symptoms. Every punch doesn't result in a concussion, every knockdown doesn't result in a concussion. Safety is important, but being overly safe would ruin the sport.
As I've said before, Jack Reiss is the fairest and most safety conscious referee there is. If all referee's were personally trained by Jack Reiss then things would be different. I also think that if he was the third man for Whyte vs. Povetkin, he would have more than likely made the same decision.
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