Joe Cortez's performance during the Hatton-Mayweather fight

[CFH]

Let me start by saying that I was a fan of Hatton and I was hoping he would beat Mayweather.

This will probably be an unpopular opinion on here, but so what...

Ricky Hatton's reputation dictated the way that fight was called. Since he beat Tszyu and burst onto the international boxing scene, he was viewed as a fighter who used an excessive amount of holding and other illegal tactics in his fights. He was able to get away with it when he was the hometown fighter or when he was the up-and-coming fighter being showcased by HBO, but once he met a fighter whose stature was equal (or above) his own, in the United States, he was no longer going to get the benefit of the doubt.

I think the Mayweather team recognized this and exploited it in a very successful way. They were campaigning in the media prior to the fight and were almost certainly in Cortez' ear the moment he was announced as the ref. I also think Cortez probably saw Hatton as someone who bent the rules to his advantage and he probably saw himself (or was convinced to see himself) as doing the right thing for the integrity of the sport by trying to call the fight strictly by the rules.

Do I think Cortez did a bad job? Yes, I do. He allowed no inside fighting whatsoever (not that it mattered, because Hatton was getting owned on the inside when Cortez allowed infighting to take place). But, I think it was Hatton's quite justified reputation that was the primary reason Cortez called the fight the way he did.

Contradiction.

Was it this fight the ref was gushing (like a teenage girl to Justin Beiber) to Floyd about how it was a privelidge to work his fight just as Floyd was waiting to go to the ring and just after hed given him instructions in front of the camera?

Semantics.

Cortez allowed a small amount of inside fighting, but it was a minuscule amount compared to most boxing matches. When they were allowed to fight on the inside, Hatton was taking a beating.

[marbleheadmaui]

I'm a big fan of inside fighting so I prefer when a ref

1) Tells the fighters to punch their way out and gives them a chance to do so

if that doesn't work

2) Physically intercedes by touching gloves to indicate what he wants

if that doesn't work

3) calls "Stop" and breaks the fighters and remind them he expects them to "punch their way out."

Cortez did little of that. So I thought he stunk. Having said that I think if Hatton fights Floyd at 147 ten times with ten different refs? Floyd wins all ten.

[armyash]

Was just so frustrating to watch. We all have our favourite fighters and i'm sure a lot of people thought Hatton would win but i would rather see a good, tough, give and take fight with the ref just there to keep the action flowing smoothly with no blatant dirty illegal fighting.

Yeah Hatton was up against it but i always thought that with his non stop pressure, crunching body shots he would have at the least been a very tough fight for Mayweather. Not saying there would have been a different winner but with Cortez keeping his interference to a minimum we would have seen a much more composed Hatton and a very competitive fight where Mayweather would have been made more uncomfortable than he was accustomed to.

[chinchekked]

Yeah, I want to make it clear that I am not saying that Cortez's actions caused a different result but I am just saying that he stunk up the joint. He would step in at times half heartedly which gave both fighters opportunities to throw extra shots and he just generally seemed aloof and overwhelmed IMO.

[Mars_ax]

Yeah, I want to make it clear that I am not saying that Cortez's actions caused a different result but I am just saying that he stunk up the joint. He would step in at times half heartedly which gave both fighters opportunities to throw extra shots and he just generally seemed aloof and overwhelmed IMO.

Joe Cortez isn't one of the worst refs, but he's one of those that can turn a fight into the "Joe Cortez Show". In other words, instead of the focus being on the 2 fighters where it belongs, you're constantly being distracted by what Cortez does. I really don't like Cortez as a ref, he's just way too interfering in big fights.