Referees and the Chinny Chin Chins…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

Referees and the chinny chin chins…

“Protect yourself at all times.”

That instruction from a referee is often heard just before, touch gloves and let’s get to work. In the center of the ring, just before the opening bell, these pieces of advice appear out of the mouths of the custodians of the fight game like mantras. They are part and parcel of the fight game. And like the instructions you are given in an airplane prior to take off we can become very blasé about hearing them – they can feel to some, like white noise.

Referee Tony Weeks, though, has taken the advice one step further as the referee in a contest between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Frederick Lawson. Both fighters heard the opening bell, neither heard another one that night when they were in the ring as Weeks called a halt to the contest with less than 30 seconds left to go in round one.

Ortiz had backed Lawson up, was unloading and whilst the punches did not seem to be effectively rendering his opponent unconscious, due to some eye rolling from Lawson, referee Weeks had seen enough and intervened. People were a little perplexed. Lawson’s team were less than impressed.

Now, we are all used to one fight or a few fights on a card ending prematurely or with some debate following about whether or not the referee should be so proactive or if the referee has been too indulgent where the boxer has been exposed to too much punishment and the new mantra has become, better safe than sorry.

After Weeks’ stoppage, commentators, pundits and fans took to the airwaves and social media to vent their ideas and conspiracy theories but, as they say, the truth is often stranger than fiction.

Let’s start with Lawson, He was cleared to fight, otherwise he would not have been in the ring. How that clearance was obtained was never in question until a few hours after the fight. Why?
Because of the referee.

Weeks took an unusual step and went to social media – in this case Facebook – to leave a fairly wild suggestion that Lawson had received news that he had an aneurysm in a pre-fight check. Once found, another check was undertaken and that led to the clearance to fight.

Weeks would appear to have been taken caution into the ring and made sure that the second opinion was not a travesty.

In his Facebook post, which was swiftly deleted, Weeks was to write that “the public didn’t know that prior to the fight they did a brain scan on him, and it came up that he had an aneurysm, and they did a test again and the same aneurysm came up. Another doctor was brought in and gave him the same examination and he tested negative for the aneurysm, so they cleared him to fight.”

Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Boxing Promotions poured cold water on the topic denying it and simply stating the fact that Lawson was cleared to fight by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

But it raises a couple of interesting issues. Firstly, what is the role that a referee should have prior to entering a ring? Should they make themselves familiar with the boxers they referee and try to get away from the prejudice some fighters feel they suffer from? Like George Groves who had a reputation for having a vulnerable chin. A factor, he says was important when he was knocked to the canvas by Carl Froch in their first fight. He has always claimed Howard Foster stopped the fight early and even now thinks that was due to that erroneous reputation – as he went on to prove.

Secondly, it raises an issue of whether Weeks has lifted a lid on a practice that may well be corrupt – passing a fighter as fit to fight when serious health issues are at stake. If there is to be a serious investigation, then that would surely come out. But who would do it? The Nevada State Athletic Commission? They have a great reputation but even they, investigating themselves, might not have the courage to fine themselves or suspend themselves or what? Sack people who should know better? Try and find out if the value of the fight overshadowed the safety of the boxers? Or was Tony Weeks looking for way to get home early? Or what? The two serious questions of fighter safety and boxing corruption shall, once more be taken to one side and binned whilst the sport keeps a rolling. One day, though, and let’s hope it never actually comes, someone may be seriously, once again injured and hope that for whatever reason a Tony Weeks is in the center of the ring to save them.

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