Cortez tainted Floyd’s Victory

[ZippyMan]

Anybody who is an honest boxing fan could see that Cortez was every bit as bad as Hatton’s personal referee back in England. Either somebody was unnecessarily worried that Hatton would be a serious threat to Mayweather or Cortez took it upon himself to influence the result of the fight.

Also, any honest fight fan (this excludes all the racist) would also acknowledge that Hatton may have done better had Cortez really been “fair but firm”.

What really pisses me off is this: Mayweather did not need Cortez’s help. All Cortez did is put doubt in the publics mind about fixed boxing matches and Floyd’s dominance in the sport. Boxing and Mayweather did not need this and if I were Mayweather I would be very upset that anybody would take away from all his hard work and his victory.

I hope the boxing establishment takes a long hard look at Cortez and other referees like him and clean house since our sport doesn’t need to be embarrassed in front of millions of viewers again.

- An American fan

[heidegger]

Cortez just refereed normally. Hatton and Hattons fans are just used to seeing him get away with a lot of wrestling and were shocked that he wasnt on this occasion. He had it comming. Its his own fault for being so damn 1 dimensional that when a referee takes away his clinching ability he finds himself lost for tactics and hope.

[Symphenyceo]

Cortez just refereed normally. Hatton and Hattons fans are just used to seeing him get away with a lot of wrestling and were shocked that he wasnt on this occasion. He had it comming. Its his own fault for being so damn 1 dimensional that when a referee takes away his clinching ability he finds himself lost for tactics and hope.



:good

[FRKO]

Anybody who is an honest boxing fan could see that Cortez was every bit as bad as Hatton’s personal referee back in England. Either somebody was unnecessarily worried that Hatton would be a serious threat to Mayweather or Cortez took it upon himself to influence the result of the fight.

Also, any honest fight fan (this excludes all the racist) would also acknowledge that Hatton may have done better had Cortez really been “fair but firm”.

What really pisses me off is this: Mayweather did not need Cortez’s help. All Cortez did is put doubt in the publics mind about fixed boxing matches and Floyd’s dominance in the sport. Boxing and Mayweather did not need this and if I were Mayweather I would be very upset that anybody would take away from all his hard work and his victory.

I hope the boxing establishment takes a long hard look at Cortez and other referees like him and clean house since our sport doesn’t need to be embarrassed in front of millions of viewers again.

- An American fan

:good

[heidegger]

Really, its a perfect illustrations of Hattons sever limitation as a boxer. Can you imagine another fighter so adversly affected by and dependent on the way a referee officiates a fight? No. Compare that to Floyd, who was comfortable on the inside, boxing on the outside, off the ropes, toe to toe, whatever. You cannot come into a fight with all your eggs in one basket. The fact that Hatton was like a lost puppy and sulking after round 6 because he couldnt hang all over Floyd shows he is an extremely incomplete boxer.

[theunderdog]

i don't think so. pbf won and people gave credit to him. the only people who think that the result would have been different without cortez as the referee are the brits.

cortez or no cortez, pbf whips hatton. end of story

[madpup]

I have a hard time understanding this. Mayweather clearly was better on the inside during the fight, so Cortez referreeing was irrelevant! Maybe Cortez should have tired Mayweathers hands together and allow Hatton a free for all hugfest.

[sthomas]

I wanted Hatton to win, but this is really getting embarrassing. If people are really thinking that the ref. changed the outcome of this fight then quit whining and lobby like bastards for a rematch with Smoger as the ref. Hell, try to get the ring shrunk, and get the fight in England. The main thing I never expected was for Hatton to lose his cool and get desparate after the 1 point deduct. Great fighters rarely, if ever do that! They make adjustments and that's what Floyd does as well as anyone and Hatton proved he does not. Even if the KO did not happen, Floyd has an even bigger advantage in a rematch than fight #1 because he learned way more about Hatton than Hatton knows about Mayweather. If Hatton fans sack up and back their man instead of make excuses, I imagine I'd root for him again in a rematch, because even with all his flaws he fell on his shield.

[Govanmauler]

Mayweather's victory is not tainted. You need to leaern the sport of boxing before making stupid comments like this. PBF was winning a one sided Decision before he KO'd Hatton. I guess than Hatton's victory against Tszyu and Castillo are also tainted since the ref let Hatton low blow Tszyu and hold him and also by holding Castillo the entire fight.


Jeez ! how many times is that insult slung around !

The guy was just giving his thoughts on this fight. There is no quesion Cortez was tougher on Hatton than he was on Mayweather. Would a different ref have resulted in a different reslult ? probably not but a different fight ? almost certianly yes.

Im a brit and a Hatton fan who admits Mayweather was the better man and fought the better fight but that doesnt change the fact that for the first 4 rounds ( at least ) Cortez was firm but NOT fair.

( Perhaps the noise during the National Anthem pissed him off a little ?)

[rodney]

Cortez did an excellent job.
Ricky Hatton is one of the dirtiest fighters in the sport.
He malls, bulls, butts, wrestles, holds, etc.
Well. Floyd gave him some of his own medicine.
Cortez did what he had to in order to keep it a boxing match and to avoid a foulfest possibly leading to a disqualification.
Fair but firm.
Because Hatton couldnt out box Floyd, didnt give him the right to make it a street fight full of fouls.
Boxing is about throwing punches, blocking, parring, slipping, bobbing, weaving and hitting your opponent on the chin.
Ricky sure lost that one.

[Brighton bomber]

Having watched the fight again I don't think Cortez did as bad a job as I initially thought. In the first couple of rounds he was awful, he broke them up at every opportunity and didn't allow them the chance to engage on the inside. He was clearly aware of the the possibility of controversy if Hatton was allowed to hold on excessively. In fact he seemed to not realise that it was more often Mayweather not Hatton who was initiating the clinches.

By the 3rd round he was more composed and allowed them to fight in close which initially favoured Hatton. But as the fight progressed Mayweather actually started beating Hatton at his own game. He got off first then tied Hatton up in close.

If a referee had allowed Hatton to fight his fight he still would have lost as Mayweather beat him at his own game. If you had a ref that broke up every clinch, Mayweather would have won from the outside.

If anyone was to blame it was Hatton. He was very competitive in the first 5 rounds but after the fair point deduction in the 6th he lost his composure and became very predictable.

[BOOKA]

Watch Hatton v Castillo, then watch PBF v Hatton

Cortez reffed those fights completely differently, thats a fact

Referees should be consistent in how they handle fights

[The Sarge]

fair point deduction? what fight do you watch? yes I agree Mayweather wins this one anyway you like but far point deduction? Both fighters were warned for hitting behind the head and floyd proceeded to do it 3 more times without penalty before the incident that had hatton stripped of a point. plus he hit the rope and nopt floyds head and Floyd turned his back deliberatly which is also illegal.

[jaycuban]

Cortez did not tainted Mayweather victory, but its looks like you are trying to

[Brighton bomber]

fair point deduction? what fight do you watch? yes I agree Mayweather wins this one anyway you like but far point deduction? Both fighters were warned for hitting behind the head and floyd proceeded to do it 3 more times without penalty before the incident that had hatton stripped of a point. plus he hit the rope and nopt floyds head and Floyd turned his back deliberatly which is also illegal.

Hatton was clearly warned twice before being deducted a point. Perhaps Cortez was a little harsh but he was warned. Initially I thought the point deduction was outrageous but having watched the fight since then I don't believe it was as bad as I had previously thought.

[The Sarge]

both that just illustrates the point. They were both doing it consistantly, but "Hatton was warned". All you ask in any sporting competetion is for the referee to be consistant and he just wasnt. I think PBF wins this fight any which way you choose it was just a shame that Cortez wasnt consistant between the two fighers, wasnt consistant with his own refereeing form all his other fights and didnt stick to what he told the boxers before the fight.

[Sinew]

Please watch the fight yet again. Everytime Cortez stopped the action is because there was no action close to taking place. These two charged toghether pretty hard, and once collided they had their arms wrapped around each other.

It doesnt even matter who caused the clinching , but what matters is that the clinching was happening. There was normal clinching that took place as well and during those times cortez only said " let him go"

A ref may alos say " punch and get out"

Or he may sneak up to them and slap the clincher's hand away.

Now ealrier in the fight these two were charging into each other
and wrapping their arms around each other and locking each other's arm.

If Floyd Mayweather grabs Hattons arm and locks it under is armpit- how is Hatton supposed to effectively throw punches?

If Hatton grabs Mayweather and Mayweather falls into a headlock how is Mayweather supposed to effectively throw punches?

better yet, How does Hatton effectively throw punches if he has Mayweather in a headlock?

Now Hatton may be able to throw punches at Mayweather while holding him in a headlock , but that isnt exaclty fair is it?

[Sinew]

both that just illustrates the point. They were both doing it consistantly, but "Hatton was warned". All you ask in any sporting competetion is for the referee to be consistant and he just wasnt. I think PBF wins this fight any which way you choose it was just a shame that Cortez wasnt consistant between the two fighers, wasnt consistant with his own refereeing form all his other fights and didnt stick to what he told the boxers before the fight.

They were both being warned , if you didnt see that then idont know what to tell you. They were both being warned.
Sometimes Cortez broke them up and faced Hatton to talk , and somethimes he faced Mayweatehr to talk to him about the fouling.

No one lost a point for it, so it shouldnt get under anyone's skin here.
Cortez even went to Mayweather's corner and yelled at them for fouling.

IT was all very apparent. It only looks bad for Hatton IF you honestly believe Hatton NEEDED the fouling to win.

[The Sarge]

No you are correct, it isnt fair at all, but thats not the argument , the argumenat is that Hatton was getting warnings for illegalities and rightly or wrongly had a point deducted. Mayweather was warned for these same things and also for consistantly using his elbows but still no sign of a deduction. Its THAT consistancy (or rather lack of it) that irked most people i think

[Sinew]

No . Hatton is a champinship fighter. He has had over 40 professional fights.
He lost a point for using his bodyweight to push Mayweather into the ropes and COCKING BACK THAT RIGHT HAND AND DELIBERATELY THROWING A PUNCH TO THE BACK OF A FGHTER'S HEAD.

At this stage in his career he cannot , He CANNOT act like he didnt know what he was doing. It was a blatant attemp to FOUL in BOXING'S WORSE CASE SCENARIO. He took a shot at someones brain stem and spinal cord:deal

[The Sarge]

Noone is saying that he shouldnt have got penalised. I am asking why Floyd didnt get penalised for his repetitive fouling also? I am talking CONSISTANCY

[Akxtinguish]

I guess than Hatton's victory against Tszyu and Castillo are also tainted since the ref let Hatton low blow Tszyu and hold him and also by holding Castillo the entire fight.

The Tszyu victory IS tainted.

[ZippyMan]

The Tszyu victory IS tainted.


True, the Tszyu fight was very bad also.

Many of the PBF fans are taking this wrong for some reason. Calm down and read the original post.

I wrote Cortez was much like Hatton's personal ref. I also said that PBF did not need the help.

Here are the facts:

- Cortez was all over Hatton the first 2-3 rounds.
- Millions of people who are not big fight fans watched this fight. Most sports fans KNOW that boxing is the dirtiest sport there is and are looking for misconduct.
- I do a lot of travel and talk to a lot of people about sports on the west coast and south-west. Almost everybody I have talked to including a few who were at the fight were VERY DISAPOINTED with the ref for not letting them work out of the breaks.
- Corruption or the perception of corruption is not good for the sport that we all love.

This is not a Hatton love letter. What happened was not right and everybody could see it.

[Akxtinguish]

WestCoast

That was the worst reffering I have ever seen.

Don't mind me asking, but how many boxing matches have you actually seen (highlights don't count)?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zippyman

Many of the PBF fans are taking this wrong for some reason. Calm down and read the original post.

I wrote Cortez was much like Hatton's personal ref. I also said that PBF did not need the help.

I understand what you're saying. However, some people either don't understand, or simply don't WANT to understand. I've understood the point you're trying to make here (ie, PBF would have won anyway and the refereeing only made it look like a "controversial" victory, which I don't think it was anyway.)

Here are the facts:

- Cortez was all over Hatton the first 2-3 rounds.
- Millions of people who are not big fight fans watched this fight. Most sports fans KNOW that boxing is the dirtiest sport there is and are looking for misconduct.
- I do a lot of travel and talk to a lot of people about sports on the west coast and south-west. Almost everybody I have talked to including a few who were at the fight were VERY DISAPOINTED with the ref for not letting them work out of the breaks.
- Corruption or the perception of corruption is not good for the sport that we all love.

I wouldn't agree with most the above.

-Cortez wasn't all over Hatton, he was all over any kind of holding/hugging/grabbing/wrestling. Maybe you think he was all over Hatton because Hatton did more of these things.

Boxing refereeing is not exactly black and white, there are certain grey areas where the referee will have to take his own decision. The educated critics would point out that Cortez was a little bit too conservative in the first few rounds and seemed to be rushing a bit to break the fight up. It wasn't about Hatton or Mayweather.

-The millions who watched their first ever boxing match wouldn't be in a very good position to judge the refereeing. I blame the British media for making this appear to be a "controversial" fight (whereas it wasn't controversial at all). Right from the beginning, they blew the refereeing out of proportion and this was enough for first-timers to take the bait and insist that the refree was corrupt (the media just has to say that he was "a bit unfair" or "a bit harsh to Hatton" for the public to portray him as someone who took a bribe).

-People were disappointed with the refereeing but not because he favoured one fighter over another. In football (soccer), for example, referees are often critisized for blowing the whistle for too many fouls and giving too many cards (a famous example is Portugal-Holland in the 2006 World Cup). This is because the fans can't watch an open free-flowing game, and this also goes for boxing. Also, sometimes the sportsmen themselves are responsible for playing dirty in the first place and not wanting to play (or fight) freely.

[JAM Killer]

Cortez just refereed normally. Hatton and Hattons fans are just used to seeing him get away with a lot of wrestling and were shocked that he wasnt on this occasion. He had it comming. Its his own fault for being so damn 1 dimensional that when a referee takes away his clinching ability he finds himself lost for tactics and hope.

Great post.

[J.E.T.]

Watch Hatton v Castillo, then watch PBF v Hatton

Cortez reffed those fights completely differently, thats a fact

Referees should be consistent in how they handle fights

Thank you..........


JET

[JAM Killer]

Hatton is pretty fucking dirty. Hitting in the back of the head, holding Floyd's head repeatedly, holding, holding and hitting, hell he held on when Floyd wasn't even punching, just to show you that it is apart of his tactics. Floyd held him off with a wrist and everybody calls fucking foul. Hell Hatton even called foul against Floyd, what a bitch.

Hatton got what he deserved, just like Huggy bear Ruiz got what he deserved against Tua. I don't like boxers who wrestle.

[ChampionsForever]

Cortez was shit, but Ricky had the wrong gameplan going into that fight.

[ZippyMan]

-The millions who watched their first ever boxing match wouldn't be in a very good position to judge the refereeing. I blame the British media for making this appear to be a "controversial" fight (whereas it wasn't controversial at all). Right from the beginning, they blew the refereeing out of proportion and this was enough for first-timers to take the bait and insist that the refree was corrupt (the media just has to say that he was "a bit unfair" or "a bit harsh to Hatton" for the public to portray him as someone who took a bribe).


I think we need these millions of first and part time fans to see a well run and fair match. Boxing has a lot to prove to move its way back into the mainstream and Cortez made our game look bad.

This was Floyds chance to shine even more than he did. He would most likely of dismantled Hatton without the ref and everybody out there would be talking about how we have the best fighter to watch since Ali. What we now have is "Mayweather was really good but he got a lot of help from the ref. Boxing is corrupt. I will not purchase another PPV."

Mayweather was ripped off more than Hatton was.

[platnumpapi]

Anybody who is an honest boxing fan could see that Cortez was every bit as bad as Hatton’s personal referee back in England. Either somebody was unnecessarily worried that Hatton would be a serious threat to Mayweather or Cortez took it upon himself to influence the result of the fight.

Also, any honest fight fan (this excludes all the racist) would also acknowledge that Hatton may have done better had Cortez really been “fair but firm”.

What really pisses me off is this: Mayweather did not need Cortez’s help. All Cortez did is put doubt in the publics mind about fixed boxing matches and Floyd’s dominance in the sport. Boxing and Mayweather did not need this and if I were Mayweather I would be very upset that anybody would take away from all his hard work and his victory.

I hope the boxing establishment takes a long hard look at Cortez and other referees like him and clean house since our sport doesn’t need to be embarrassed in front of millions of viewers again.

- An American fan

watch the fight closer, the only time cortez got in the way is when pbf or hatton were headlocking or armbaring.other then that the clinches lasted for 15 sometimes 20 secs, i counted.

the only thing that was bs was cortex taking a point from hatton.but he warned pbf and hatton for hiting in the back of the head, hatton went for ir but missed and joe e took the point anyway, that was bs.

but thats all i can comlain about it

[heidegger]

True, the Tszyu fight was very bad also.

Many of the PBF fans are taking this wrong for some reason. Calm down and read the original post.

I wrote Cortez was much like Hatton's personal ref. I also said that PBF did not need the help.

Here are the facts:

- Cortez was all over Hatton the first 2-3 rounds.
- Millions of people who are not big fight fans watched this fight. Most sports fans KNOW that boxing is the dirtiest sport there is and are looking for misconduct.
- I do a lot of travel and talk to a lot of people about sports on the west coast and south-west. Almost everybody I have talked to including a few who were at the fight were VERY DISAPOINTED with the ref for not letting them work out of the breaks.
- Corruption or the perception of corruption is not good for the sport that we all love.

This is not a Hatton love letter. What happened was not right and everybody could see it.

Well I, for one,cannot see it.

The thing that most people seem to be overlooking is that it was Floyd doing most of the clinching and Hatton was not getting any advantage out of these clinches. It was masterful strategic grappleing by Floyd that nullified Rickys inside game and therefore fight prospects. As soon as Hatton got close Floyd put his arms around him and slid that elbow nice and high thus situating the fighters in a lock from which there could be no action. At this point Cortez must break them up because the fighters are locked!! It was no disadvantage to Hatton being seperated at these junctures because he wasnt getting anything done, just as Floyd wasnt -Floyd had stalled the action. It was strategic genius on behalf of Floyd. Also, its why I dont believe for a second that Floyd hadnt watched any tapes. That was a guy who knew exactly what he was doing in the ring and who executed a perfect technique against a fighter with strategic prowess of his own.

[KO Boxing]

Never pinned the English to be Bad Sports....

WAIT A MINUTE... YES I DID!!! :D

[Triplesod]

Never pinned the English to be Bad Sports....

WAIT A MINUTE... YES I DID!!! :D

You should go on stage with that wit.

You remind me of a cross between Bill Hicks and Oscar Wilde (as they are today).