Did you watch the replay? Morrison was out 4 brutal punches earlier. and these are heavyweights and he's on the fukkin ropes!Ray Mercer's base was low and Morrison's defense was gone his legs were out from a lefthook. He wasn't fighting back nor protecting himself. It didn't help that only the ropes was holding him.
The fights you mentioned all includes knockdowns. A KD (sometimes intentional) helps a fighter to recover and gather himself. All of those fights were great fights, if I'm not mistaken only the Vasquez-Marquez fights featured the least KD, and two of it were stopped by the ref. The only fight which reached the 12th, shows Marquez being gifted a 'standing 8 count'. If not for that KD, he would have been stopped again by Vasquez.
Another fight that shows how helpful the KD's are is the epic Chico/Castillo fight. Chico gathered himself during the counts, and also with the help of the brilliant strategy to spit his mouthpiece to KO Castillo. IMO if Castillo did the same and only had the presence of mind to take a knee he may have survive the round. Guess where he was, at the ropes. That was a great recognition by Tony Weeks to stop the fight.
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