Joe Cortez Shifts Full Blame to Victor Ortiz for Mayweather Knockout
by Scott Christ on Sep 19, 2011 1:28 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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Referee Joe Cortez says that inexperience cost Victor Ortiz the fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr on Saturday night. From BoxingScene.com:
"I had already ordered them to continue fighting and the clock was running, but Ortiz wanted to apologize again and he was off guard. Mayweather, who is more experienced, he took advantage, but did nothing illegal. Nowhere is there a rule that says the boxer has to apologize and hug the other fighter and do it at least two or three times."
Not surprisingly, Cortez isn't admitting any mistakes in his handling of this. He's not wrong in his assessment here, at least technically. In terms of legality only, it was all on the up-and-up.
Of course, what's worse is that Nevada will continue to assign Cortez major fights even though it has been painfully clear for years now that he has a habit of losing full control of the action in the ring, and that when forced to make a quick decision, he's very prone to screwing up. Look, boxing fans are an emotional, often immature, often silly fanbase, same as with any other sport. I'm not saying Nevada should bend to the will of yahoos. But Cortez draws criticism constantly. When something keeps happening, there's a reason for it. We also detailed all the major issues that referee Russell Mora has had this year, but he got only a slap on the wrist (at best) for his disgracefully bad performance in the August fight between Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares.
The issue with Cortez this time is that his corny catchphrase ("I'm fair but I'm firm!") just isn't true. He was anything but firm in his restart of the fight. I'm as big a critic of Victor Ortiz as you're likely to find, but no, I wouldn't be surprised if he legitimately wasn't totally aware that Cortez's not-so-clear restart was in fact a restart. A firm one, I guess.
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Following 2 days of stunned confusion, I have (subject to change) decided that most of the whole mess is Joe Cortez’s fault. In no way do I excuse VO’s violent headbutt, or any foul. But they happen all the time. What happened next doesn’t happen all the time, because most refs are better than Cortez. VO’s excessive apology (or further insult, especially the kiss, as the case may be) didn’t help matters either—but Cortez had never separated the fighters, and he wasn’t looking. Moreover, it was the weakest time-in I’ve ever seen—Cortez’s body language was all against it. So to me, there’s blame enough to go around, but mostly I think it’s Cortez.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
Co-sign. At the moment, I’m still angry enough to not want to see any of these three in a ring again (which will definitely change), but none of this could have happened if Joe Cortez had control. Cortez is to the International Boxing Hall of Fame what Rabbit Maranville is to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
At least Maranville was funny.
Wear something sexy to my funeral.
by Pops Daniels on Sep 19, 2011 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah. Bill James once said, “You and I will never see the like of him.” We’ve all seen the like of Joe Cortez too many times with boxing’s low standard for officials.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Sep 19, 2011 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions
Maybe Tom Yawkey would have made a better pick here, in terms of incompetence. And I say this as a Red Sox fan. But enough about baseball.
I think my IBHOF Maranville comp would be McGuigan. Great guy, memorable guy, everyone loves him, but…
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Sep 19, 2011 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions
In no way do I excuse VO’s violent headbutt, or any foul. But they happen all the time.
Little niggling headbutts do, by the likes of Holyfield, Bradley and Ward, but Ortiz’s was a proper head cocked back, Saturday night-outside-the-pub headbutt.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Vic was looking to get DQ’d, looking for a way out (again), considering how blatant he was with his foul.
Honestly
I think his corner was telling him to use his head if Mayweather starts using his elbows. Don’t think they really trained him to do it effectively though. I’ve never seen Victor fight like that in the past. I think he just got caught in the moment and threw the headbutt like he was told to do and had an Oops moment when he realized it was not inconspicuous. Almost like when you say something out loud that you meant to just whisper.
This is sort of what he said in the post fight conference. He wanted to fight fire with fire, but he made several mistakes in the process. 1) Jumping like a bull in a rodeo, 2) apologizing so many times, 3) letting his guard down.
Bob Arum would promote Lucifer himself if he could put asses in the seats.
I have been withholding my comments about the fight to because immediately after the fight my posts would have been much angrier.
I agree that most of the problem lies with Joe Cortez. If you have told the fighters to box (which it appears he did), why on Earth are you looking away from the action? If you need to give someone else instructions, give them instructions before you restart the action. If you are not ready to be a referee of the fight, then just tell the fighters to stay in their corners until you are.
Let’s say Mayweather had kicked Victor Ortiz in the groin and then threw that right cross, Cortez would have had absolutely no idea what had happened and ruled it a knockdown as he simply was not paying attention until the knockout punch.
That being said, Ortiz should have definitely kept his gloves up and protected himself after Cortez had told them to box. He had a full mental lapse starting with the obvious (and DQ worthy) headbutt attempt. I have a feeling that Ortiz was legitimately upset at how stupid his headbutt was and needed some instruction from his corner to get his head back into the fight.
Mayweather threw legal punches, but that doesn’t let Mayweather off the hook for one thing: I find it hard to believe that Mayweather should have wanted to win that way, against an opponent with his gloves down. He can prove to us he’s the best fighter in the world against someone with their gloves up and facing him.
I’m not hating on Mayweather (disclaimer: I really dislike Mayweather), he got a legal win and looked like he was on his was to an easy decision or possibly late stoppage. I just wish the fight did not end like that. Floyd saw a fighter with his hands down and took his shots. Cortez gets the lions share of the blame with Ortiz also responsible.
Anyways, just my thoughts about what happened.
+1
Cortez first.
Ortiz second.
Floyd third.
Three stooges
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
IMO
Ortiz, Mayweather and Cortez are all at fault, but none of this would have happened had Ortiz not done what he did and instigated it.
I still think it's Victor and Mayweather's fault
Mayweather obviously because he’s the dude that decided to immediately punch after the hug.
Victor because of his need to hug again.
The only way I see Cortez influencing this is if Ortiz was only going to hug if action hadn’t resumed yet. But even that is kind of weak, because boxers touch gloves all the time after action resumes. I personally think Ortiz had his mind made up that he was going to try some type of apologetic gesture once Cortez gave the go ahead like many boxers always do. He decided stupidly for a hug instead of an out of reach glove touch.
Cortez did look bad, but his actions didn’t influence the outcome here. Even if he was watching instead of talking to the timekeeper he would have seen the same thing we saw. Time in, hug, good night.
I still don't fault Mayweather much
He did what he was suppose to do in the ring. I really don’t get the part where he was suppose to wait for Ortiz after Cortez said fight. I remember the Khan vs Maidana fight in the first round where Khan wanted to touch gloves again and Maidana swung for his head. Khan was prepared and ducked. It’s a fight between the ropes nothing more nothing less. The referee is there to make sure its a fair fight. Cortez deserves blame but Ortiz forgot boxing rule 101.
I keep thinking about how Mosley kept tapping gloves with Manny the whole fight and then when he pushed him down and Bayless counted it as a knockdown all he did was look at Manny and shrug. If the fight was closer that could have been a big turning point. Nice guys can stab you in the back as well. If you start doing dirty stuff in the ring don’t expect a man to take your apology without a little bit of anger. Ortiz should have been more than prepared for a retaliation.
What’s kind of gotten lost in this is that up to that point Cortez actually wasn’t having a bad night. He wasn’t immediately trying to break the guys up any time they were close to each other, which is a downright rarity for him these days. Of course, I’m not going to complain if this does result in him getting at least fewer main event fights; I’ve been wanting to see that for years.
This fight started well, and ended like a train wreck.
Here is what I think, for the little it’s worth:
1. Ortiz was egregiously, inexcusably, wrong for that head butt. Holyfield notwithstandimg, what fighter forgets that you simply, just can’t do that?
2. Cortez was wrong, because as a referee in charge of controlling two guys whose ex[ress intent is to hurt one another, he has to focus on one thing at a time, and order the sequence of these things. The referee is the dominant presence in the ring in any fight, not either or both of the fighters.
3. Mayweather was wrong, because this was a professional sporting event, with certain expectations of ethical behavior regardless of the “rules.” It was not a streetfight, and boxing is not streetfighting for money. Mayweather knew that Ortiz was not set, or ready. Ortiz may have wanted to cuddle too much for most of us, but Myweather still sucker punched him.
Im hoping this is my last post to say what I think of the whole situation.
Ortiz headbutt was stupid beyond relms of normality. I dont think it was to hurt Mayweather as much as it was a release of frustration, when your angry and you hit the wall you dont wana break the wall just wana vent. That aside it was obviosly a foul that at worst deserved a DQ and I would of been ok but annoyed the fight ended like that.
Cotez I think must of been cheacking with the time keeper to start the clock. He never told the time keeper to stop the clock in the first place, and usualy this is all what the ref does when he has split the fighters. Before letting the fight start a ref should check with the officials and when all is good wave the fighters to continue, not look away from any action to check.
With Mayweather I have no problem with up untill the last hug ‘attempt’. He was pissed off and had every right to be but when Ortiz went to hug he could of stepped back or shaked his head. He went in for that hug knowing what he would do on the way out. The shots were legal definatly, but very cheap and not something a top sporting athlete should do. He wants to be considered a G.O.A.T and I cant link the two up together.
I belame all 3 for what happened
"A hero has faced it all: he need not be undefeated, but he must be undaunted." - Andrew Bernstein
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