Boxing x UFC: Why Usyk Vacated, Bad Refs in Boxing & UFC

0:00 Usyk did NOT vacate the belts for Anthony Joshua to grab ... here's the real reasons why he gave the WBC, WBA, and IBF (and doesn't want the WBO).

3:41. Referees in boxing and the UFC have been horrendous lately. Here's 3 examples...

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oleksander Usyk did not vacate the four belts so that Anthony Joshua could pick them up. Oleksander Usyk vacated the belts because he did not want to be dictated to by those sanctioning bodies. Let's take a look at who the mandatory defenses would have been for Oleksander if he wanted to keep those four belts. Well, for the WBC, we know it's Ajit Kabayel and Turkey, Al-A Sheikh, dictated to Usyk immediately immediately in the ring after the Rico fight. Turkey told him, You're gonna fight Ajit, you're gonna fight him in Germany in a soccer stadium. Well, why should the undisputed heavyweight champion face the challenger in the challenger's backyard? That's ridiculous. So I can see why, or I predicted that Usyk would definitely vacate the WBC. But let's look at the contenders for the other three letters, the three letter sanctioning bodies. So the WBA mandatory is Moses Italma. Now that would that's a fight I would love to see, but I can understand Usyk's perspective. Now I'm sure some people will say Usyk was scared of Moses Itama. I don't think so. Usyk has so much more experience in the ring than Moses Italma. Yes, he would have to train incredibly hard and be in the best shape ever, but I think Usyk's experience and ring savviness would have been too much for Moses. But the bigger issue is the fact that how many people all over the world know who Moses Italma is? How many of the casuals know who he is? Those of us who really follow boxing probably know and really admire Moses, but he's not a household name yet. At best, he's probably more well known in the UK than he is state stateside. So although that would have been a fun fight, Usyk versus Itama, I can understand from Usyk's point of view why he doesn't want to bother fighting somebody who's not very well known in the US and actually doesn't have that much ring time under his belt. Next, let's move on to the WBO. Well, who holds the belt there? None other than Daniel Dubois. He seized it back from Fabio Wardley. The problem there is, of course, Usyk's already beaten Daniel Dubois twice. So does Usyk want to chase that fourth belt in a trilogy fight with Dubois when he's already beaten him twice? That fight probably doesn't appeal much to Usik either. It's literally the case of been there, done that, and again, while I like Dubois as a fighter, I don't know that he has a huge following here in the US. Finally, the IBF. The number one rated IBF heavyweight is none other than Frank Sanchez. He's also a technically sound fighter, Cuban, now fighting in the US, who recently disposed of the American Richard Torres Jr. Now, well, again, I like all of these four heavyweight fighters. I think they're technically sound. They come to fight. They would have made an interesting matchup with Usyk, but you have to look at it from his point of view. He only wants one more fight. I'm sure he wants to go out on his terms, meaning he wants to fight who he wants to fight, where he wants to fight them, and when he wants to fight them. And certainly they need to be a big enough name for Usik to demand a certain purse and get a certain amount of pay-per-view revenue. And unfortunately, for Cabayel, Sanchez, Dubois, and Itama, well I again I love all four of those heavyweights. They're just not big enough names here in the United States to pull in huge pay-per-view numbers. So that's why I think Usyk abandoned all four belts. He just doesn't want to be told who he has to fight in his final dance. Can you blame him? What is going on with the refing and officiating in boxing? I saw three horrendous examples this weekend. The first was between Ben Whitaker and his opponent, then dropped his opponent in the second round. His opponent got to his feet, beat the count, was up at nine, looking the ref straight in the face, and the ref waved it off at nine. Now, the camera angle was perpendicular to the ref and the fighter, so we didn't get to see from the ref's vantage point, you know, what he saw in the fighter's eyes. However, that fighter was not wobbly on his feet, he looked lucid, and as soon as the ref waved the fight off in his face, he you could tell he immediately questioned that with, you know, hands up, shrugging, why are you stopping this fight? Now we can argue, well, Ben would have won the fight anyways. That's irrelevant, guys. If a fighter beats the count and is willing to continue and is able to continue physically, then the fight should be allowed to continue. Now, on the other side of the argument, we know that Ben Whitaker is the A-side in this, and so his opponent should have been prepared to know that if there's any question that he could potentially get stopped, the referee would stop the fight, as unfair as that is. But wait, it gets worse because in Emiliano Vargas's fight versus someone named Bryce Mills, the ref didn't even wait until Mills touched the canvas. Emiliano and Bryce Mills were in an exchange. Granted, Emiliano was getting the better of Bryce in that moment, but Bryce was still on his feet. He was throwing back punches. Granted, he might have been missing, but he's throwing punches back. What does the ref do? He barges in to interrupt that exchange. He charges towards Bryce and pushes Bryce down to the canvas. Ridiculous. Like, what are you doing? Like you're not he Bryce is not supposed to be fighting the ref, but the ref is putting Bryce on the canvas. This is a professional fight. It was for a bunch of regional belts. Now, mind you, I call them meaningless trinkets, but they were for like three or four made-up 10-round fight belts. So you gotta let this play out. You can't just bully the opponent and put him on the canvas. But again, Bryce Mills and his team must have known that they were most definitely the B side to Emiliano Vargas, and that again, any chance the ref gets to stop the fight in Vargas's favor, they will he will do that. Now, third and final nail in the coffin on horrible referee performance was on the Zufa boxing card in the main event, Jose Valenzuela versus Edwin de los Santos, two south paws in a rematch. Now, Valenzuela did hurt de los Santos at the end of the first round and then dropped him again with a right short right hook at the beginning of the second round. But here's where the egregious part comes in. As De los Santos was on the canvas already, semi-reclined, both his legs were on the canvas, both his gloves were touching the canvas, his head is only a couple of feet off the canvas. What does Valenzuela do? He steps around and throws a hard left uppercut. The ref does nothing. The desk, you know, these commentators who know so much about boxing, they don't say anything about Valenzuela hitting De los Santos while De los Santos is already down. That is an automatic DQ. It doesn't matter if you're winning the fight, it doesn't even matter if the other fighter is out. You are not allowed to hit somebody when they're on the canvas or when they've touched the canvas. Now there are moments where it may be a question of discretion. I can speak from my own experience. In one of my fights with Stephanie Dobbs, I threw a one, two, three combination and her glove grazed the canvas. But all I saw was her head dipping down a little bit. So I was about to step in. Fortunately for me, referee Jay Nady, who's also a former fighter, he stepped in immediately, looked me dead in the eye, and said no, meaning like don't hit her, because Jay Nady knew that her glove had touched the canvas. So if I hit Stephanie in that moment, I would have been DQ'd. So my point here is it's in that moment when a fighter hits the canvas, it's up to the referee to maintain order. Thomas Taylor just wasn't there fast enough to prevent Valenzuela from hitting De los Santos, but by the same token, Valenzuela knows darn well that De los Santos is on the canvas and yet he threw that punch anyways. In my opinion, it's really more the officials and the commentators that need to be held accountable as to why they did not address this egregious action on the part of Valenzuela. The safety of the fighter is supposed to come first, that's true, and yet you're also supposed to let the fight play out if both parties are still willing and able. I feel that a valid point in one of his recent podcasts he went on a bit of a rant about the fact that officials are not held accountable. And Dominic gave the example of his own fight with, I believe it was Henry Sehudo, where Dominic felt that the fight was stopped too early. And of course, the more recent uh issue in the UFC with Alex Pereira taking those elbows to the back of the head from Cyril Ghan. So, how are we going to hold these officials accountable for their scorecards and the referees accountable for their actions or lack thereof in the ring? Should we find the referees? Should we make them sit out for should they be suspended, you know, for 30, 60, 90 days? Should referees and officials be subject to an annual or semi annual review? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Thank you so much.