This past weekend boxing fans witnessed one of the most questionable refereeing jobs in boxing in quite some time. However, while the fight may have seen one of the worst ref jobs, fans also recall that only 4 weeks earlier Paul Williams was given a highly questionable decision against Erislandy Lara.
While questionable calls and decisions are nothing new to boxing, it does bring up other past fights that remind fans of some injustices that were allowed by the judges or the ref.
Here are 3 from the past 20 years that can get a boxing fans blood boiling.
Oscar De La Hoya vs Felix Sturm– This fight was supposed to be a tune up for Oscar before he was to face Bernard Hopkins-Sturm was supposed to pose little threat to De La Hoya, however from the weigh-in one could tell that Oscar was looking ahead to the Hopkins fight as he didn’t take his shirt off at the weigh-in and upon entering the ring looked very soft at the 160lbs. Over the next 12 rounds DLH looked like the beaten man, he constantly got caught with the straight left and overhand right. However after 12 rounds Felix Sturm lost a Unanimous Decision 115-113 on all three judges’ scorecards.
Sturm fought a smart fight; however, the powers that be saw perhaps DLH steal a couple rounds with his last second flurries at the end of more than a couple rounds. Sturm by most observers won the fight yet instead of becoming an overnight sensation in the states as well as back in Germany, he left with his first loss. A loss that he was never able to get back in a rematch with Oscar, De La Hoya, ended up fighting Bernard Hopkins and lost by a 9th round TKO body shot.
Julio Caesar Chavez vs Meldrick Taylor– This fight has been debated and talked about for the last 21 years since the fight happened. The fight showcased two elite fighters at the prime of their careers battle it out for 12 rounds only for the fight to be called with 2 seconds left in the bout. Taylor was ahead on 2 of the 3 scorecards before the fight was called. Over the first 7-8 rounds Taylor was the more dominate fighter, landing the better shots and controlling the fight, however, the gritty and tough Chavez was able to stick to his game plan and landing the harder shots throughout the fight. In the last few rounds Chavez took control of the fight and punished Taylor and almost dropping him in the 11th. After 11 rounds the fight almost seemed to be Taylor’s to lose as all he needed to do was stay away and not get knocked out. However, Taylor decided to stand and trade with Chavez and that was the beginning of the end. In the 12th Taylor stood his ground and fought Chavez in the middle of the ring, Taylor was landing some good shots and then with 25 seconds left Taylor got caught with a straight right that hurt him and then another right with 15 seconds left to drop him. As Richard Steele is counting the commentator states “if he (Taylor) gets up, he probably wins the fight.” Taylor was never given the chance to recover as Steele called the fight off with 2 seconds left.
The call to have the fight stopped is still one of the most controversial calls in boxing, even to this day, watching the fight can make a fight fan sick to their stomach. It was a bad call and a ban ending. Here is the final 2 minutes if you want to relive the last round. See video.
Diego Corrales vs Jose Luis Castillo– Corrales was the WBO Champion and Castillo held the WBC strap, going into the fight, both fighters in previous fights showed that they were willing to exchange and stand their ground. This fight was no different, from the start; both men went toe to toe and rarely gave ground to one another. They exchanged hard shots and through 9 rounds it was a fairly even fight. However in the 10th, Castillo hurt Corrales early and dropped him with a left hook, Chico would get up only to get dropped once again and spit out his mouthpiece for the second time. Tony Weeks the ref decides to deduct a point for the mouth piece and at this point of the fight the round would be at least a 10-7 round in favor of Castillo. Goosen, Diego’s trainer can be heard telling Chico as he puts in his mouth piece, “you gotta fu@$ing get it done on him now” referring to having to stop Castillo. Over the next minute Corrales staged one of the most dramatic comebacks-with a flurry of exchanges, Castillo got caught with a hard left then another flurry of punches that made Castillo drop his hands, Tony Weeks jumps in and stops the fight with less than a minute left in the 10th round.
The fight was the 2005 fight of the year and is considered to also be the fight of the decade, but many wonder if it was stopped a little early. Corrales had been down twice earlier in the round and Castillo had not touched the canvas in the round before it was stopped. Many observers felt Castillo should have been given at least an opportunity to get up had he been dropped at the time. Weeks would say after that Castillo’s hands were and he went limp and he had no other choice. While the video does show Castillo was hurt and going down, we will never know whether or not Castillo could have got back up. The fight had everything you would expect a FOY to have and to this day is my personal favorite fight. But the questionable stoppage will always remain a debate as to whether or not the fight was correctly called.
There are a good number of fights that boxing fans can recall that are highly questionable as the Mares-Agbeko fight this past weekend.
What are some of your most memorable questionable stoppages or decisions?
@Jesus YEAH!! That Zarate vs Pintor was a major rip-off. I have that fight in my collection and saw it again about a month ago. man, it wasn’t even close. Whitaker vs Chavez was another bad decision. I recently reviewed it too.
@EZ,
Thank you for that correction regarding Louis & Walcott. I actually read that somewhere.
Hey, how about Jose L. Ramirez vs Whitaker & Lupe Pintor vs Carlos Zarate.
Jesus Yes those were BOTH some really bad calls although Joe Louis never really went to the dressing room before the decision was rendered. Actually I believe he never went completely down the steps. His handler’s stopped him or he surely would’ve done so. I have a highlighted version of that fight. Either way, you are 100% correct, that was a horrible decision. And Lennox got “stiffed’ also in that first Holyfield fight.
Joe Louis was so sure the had lost his heavyweight title to Jersey Joe Walcott that he left the ring before the decision was announced. Someone ran to his dressing room and told Louis he had retained his title.
Jersey Joe scored two knockdowns and clearly domminated the fight.
Worst call was when one the the judges gave the fight to Holyfield when he fought Lennox Lewis the first time.
I also believe that Tony Weeks blew it when he allowed Corrales fool/trick him by spitting out his mouthpiece. I did a some refereeing in the amateurs many years ago, mid-late 70s, I remember when a fighter that lost or spit out his mouthpiece would have to wait until the round was OVER to get his mouthpiece back. Well… that’s how it was when I used to box back in the day.
Now, a ref is SUPPOSED to wait until there’s a LULL IN THE ACTION. Right after a KNOCKDOWN or when a fighter is on the verge of getting knocked out is NOT a “lull in the action’, NO WAY!! That’s not the time to call a ‘time out’ to rinse off a mouthpiece. Personally, I would’ve let it go on. If Corrales would’ve recovered his senses a bit or the asction would’ve slowed down and then it would’ve been the CORRECT time to stop the clock to rinse out the mouthpiece. And then if it happened again, which it did, I would’ve again allowed the fight to continue NORMALLY/NO TIME OUT and then taken a point away at the end of the round, if it went that far. I’ve always believed that Weeks ROBBED Castillo of a potential knockout be allowing Corrales to recover not only once but TWICE!!! TWO TIMES!! DUO!! DOS VECES!!
@Armando thanks for sharing that.
ARMANDO I remember this fight pretty well. Correct me if I’m wrong but you had “Mantequilla” pretty much ‘melted down’ and cut up. The was no mention that the cuts were due to head butts until they used it to save his title, or something like that. It seems to me that the local commission were the CULPRITS in the ROBBERY!! Logically my recollection of this fight is not as vivid as yours, no doubt. I had a rather special interest in this particular fight because I believe you and I were stationed in Fort Bragg in 1970. A friend of mine had a hi-lighted version of the fight, a rather bad copy with only a few rounds of the actual fight. Anyway, I would like a copy if you would kindly care to send one. My email is: [email protected]
Thanks for sharing and enlightening us with the facts of your experience. Hope to hear from you again soon.
By the way, I also remember a bit of your fight with Angel “Cholo” Espada in the Roberto Clememte Coliseum in Puerto Rico. I should because I was there. I didn’t get to see the whole fight because I worked in the corner of one the prelim fighters prior to your main event fight with Espada. Man, that was a very close one. From the little action that I saw… hmmm… you were giving my buddy “Cholo” a pretty rough night, to say the least, when you had him a bit dazed and holding on. My regards!!
Gabreal:
You probably weren’t even born back in March of 1975, or perhaps you hadn’t started following this great sport! Sometimes I see on MY BOXING FANS stories about some great robberies or some really really bad calls!! What happened on March 29, 1975 in Acapulco, Gro. Mexico, I still cannot believe. I trained my ass off like you cannot believe to fight the biggest fight of MY LIFE! It was for the Welterweight title against Jose Mantequilla Napoles.
After going 11rounds and about a half a minute in the 12th, the fight doctor STOPS the fight and says to the ref and Napoles’ seconds that he could NOT continue!!! I read his lips from where I was and for a second by dream came through!! “Ya no puede seguir” means he cannot continue!!
Well a few minutes later, since the announcer did want to be part of a ridiculous robbery, the ref picked up the mic and announce “El ganador en esta pelea es…..Jose Angel Mantequilla Napoles!!! Talk about experiencing and feeling a SCHILLING effect in my body…..I felt like i was floating in the ring as I heard the decision. For your info. in the 11th round, Napoles hit me below the belt at least 12-14 times and supposedly the ref NEVER saw this but everybody else did!! Amigo, if you cannot find a copy of the fight, let me know. I will mail you a copy. ……….
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