Well, I won't lie. Sunday night is a night I tend to get drunk. Look, I'm no professional journalist. I don't pretend I am. Sometimes I'm drunk. Sometimes I'm hungry. Today it's drunk. Let's do this.
Steve Smoger (Tries To) Explain Jones Knockout
Referee Steve Smoger came under fire for letting Roy Jones Jr get cracked with a final devastating right hook from Denis Lebedev that left him face-down on the canvas in a scary scene in Moscow on Saturday. I respect Smoger as an official. For years he had the rep of letting fights go on too long, and then he kind of overcame it, and became the ref who let fighters fight. This fight kind of flipped the script back a little. But here's Smoger's explanation:
"I didn't stop the fight because there were only a matter of seconds remaining in the fight and it seemed that Roy was pretending, trying to trick his opponent," said Smoger. "He did this repeatedly in the fight. So I thought Jones was doing the same thing here, trying to deceive Lebedev in the final seconds of the fight in order to lure Denis in to land a big punch [which Jones managed to do in the previous round]."
I swear to God, I've seen people say that they "heard" that Jones was winning the fight and then got knocked out in the last 10 seconds. I assure you, Jones was not winning the fight. Smoger should have known better. Jones hasn't been able to take a clean punch in years. Lebedev had him unconscious standing up. Poor Roy got creamed with another right hook that wasn't necessary. That's on Smoger. I have all the respect in the world for Smoger, and he didn't make this idiotic fight, but he shouldn't have let Roy take that last shot.
Fight Chatter
- The David Tua vs Monte Barrett rematch that nobody cares about is being postponed.
- Enzo Maccarinelli wants to fight Nathan Cleverly. Alright then. Pass. But, you know, alright then.
After the jump: Drunk Song of the Day!
Song of the Day