Fave Referees

[BoomBoom]

Steve Smoger is the best imo. He genuinely cares about the fighters and he made great calls without controversy.

[jamiebhoy]

that sir does not suck

Boxing is a bloodthirst sport however much you like/dislike that, if theres a world title on the line a ref should give a fighter every possible opportunity to carry on unless in an extreme circumstance like if he was getting absoloutely tonked.

where would boxing be right now if we had over zealous refs every time....

Marquez-Pacquiao would of been over within 2 minutes
diego corrales would of been handsomely beaten 1st time around by castillo
vasquez-marquez would of been stopped several times over
eubank would of lost to watson
benn would of lost to mcclellan

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.

if a fighter is still standing his still fighting in my opinion

If you get hit hard to the point your unable to throw back the 1st thing to go will indeed be your legs, if a guy is up at 8 but all over the place then indeed stop the fight, if he is up able to walk to you and answers the "do you wanna fight on" theres absoloutely no reason to stop a contest.

Have to disagree that as long as you're up you're fair game and in the fight. Many boxers will just not make the decision for themselves that they have had enough, they are to use a cliche 'warrios' they will accept the ref or the corner pulling them out but don't ask most to give up on their own.
Do see where you are coming though,in some cases it can turnaround and you get a completely different result in seconds but for the most part the ref should err on the side of caution.A good point made in a fight I recntly watched was the commentator saying the ref should be knowledgable about the fighters as some of them might go for ever looking like they are done in and could be stopped too early.
That's why I wouldn't wanna be a ref big call knowing the damage a wring decision could cause.