Despite giving credit to Cotto, Judah also had his share of excuses: "I got hit with two hard low blows. It did a lot to me. I got a lot of swelling on the back of my head." He also complained about referee Arthur Mercante Jr., who by most ringside accounts, did an excellent job at maintaining control of the fight under difficult circumstances: "[After going down from the second low blow] he told me to get up because 'you can't win the fight on the ground.'"