Clottey was lucky the fight wasn't stopped

[Spicoli]

Rewatched it a few times.It was a crazy string of events.At the exact same time Mercante appeared to trip on the bottom rope/or stepped on a camera...the bottom of shot was cut off but he looked down and yelled.

At the same time,Clottey throws a straight right that misses and hits the top strand and the rope gos absolutely ape-shit....starts snapping wildly.Clottey goes into corner,turns and as he stepped down with left he slips forward on the black Tecate painted....and it looks like his back ankle is hit off bottom rope putting him in an upward lurch.We've seen more guys get messed up on those slick logos than we can count.He may have milked it,but he didn't write the script ........or this hmmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kEh3...eature=related

I do think Mercante got a little carried away with the coaching and Tony robbins speech.Encouragement is fine and keeping his ring in order expected but he had zero idea if Clottey was seriously injured or not.Is there any doubt that had that been Cotto he would have sent Clottey to a neutral corner and called for the 5 minutes right away with out the "What are you a man or a mouse" speak?

Injuries happen.And as a championship fighter you should do everything in your power to fight through them.Tried to find vids of Hopkins dominating a round with only one arm after Echols power-bombed him or Derrick Jefferson standing on one foot and throwing punches vs, Maskaev after his ankle was torn but no luck........Clottey recovered and blew it.Point blank.He sat on his lead and let it slip away.He does not possess the mind set of a finisher when a guy is showing signs.No one too blame but himself!!

[Kel]

I agree Bilbo the ref did a great job!

[bzkfn]

I agree Bilbo the ref did a great job!

Me 2.

[Gandalf]

I agree Bilbo the ref did a great job!

Me 2.

Me 3.

Clottey was acting like a total clown. Writhing away like that was lame. I've injured my ankles quite badly in sports but you would never catch me wailing away on the floor in front of everybody. Sure it wasn't his ankle, and he probably knocked his knee fairly hard. But that was over the top. The fact that he was okay within 6 minutes says so too.

The ref did a decent job out there as Clottey was playing up more than a couple of times. Clottey should join the theatre, or else play for Manchester United.

[Bomp]

I agree Bilbo the ref did a great job!

Me 2.

Me 3.

Clottey was acting like a total clown. Writhing away like that was lame. I've injured my ankles quite badly in sports but you would never catch me wailing away on the floor in front of everybody. Sure it wasn't his ankle, and he probably knocked his knee fairly hard. But that was over the top. The fact that he was okay within 6 minutes says so too.

The ref did a decent job out there as Clottey was playing up more than a couple of times. Clottey should join the theatre, or else play for Manchester United.

It was a soccer roll around, quite patetic. Whenever I've been proper injured in football/rugby (broken arm and snapped ligaments in ankle) the pain is searing, but the reaction is more of an 'oh fuck, what have I done'. The writhing around is only justified for a david Busst type injury, even then I'd just expect them to be white with shock.

There was a delayed reaction to the back of the head shot in the 12th, as if to say he realised'wow that may have been a foul', and by the time the low blow landed, which may have been genuinely painful, well he'd cried wolf too much by then.

[SweetPea]

Mercante Jr. is a very solid ref. He worked the Cotto-Judah fight too and did a great job. That fight had the low blow fouls, plus Judah's rep for losing control, and Mercante kept that fight on the up-and-up.

Mercante is up there with Bayless and Smoger among the top refs.