After
watching the recent bout between Lamont Peterson and Amir Khan a few times (hey, I enjoyed the fight. What can I say?), I
have to say that I think my original thoughts on referee Joe Cooper were more
than a tad harsh (Kim/peterson-hunter)
and in looking back at his performance as the third man in the ring- after
being a bit too close to the action in the opening rounds- I think he actually
did a very good job. And this video put together by John Chavez of the Boxing
Truth seems to back that up: youtube.com/=XEpQpOU5i8w
The
more I think about it, my only complaint about Cooper is that on the final
warning he gave to Khan for pushing off on Peterson in the sixth, he should've
called a quick time-out, making it clear to everyone in that arena that one
more shove and a point would be docked instead of just saying so in the course
of action. And I'm really conflicted about the second penalty on Khan because
it just looked like the worst kind of timing in that circumstance. You hate to
see such a well-contested fight like that be decided by a referee's ruling. But
really, is Cooper merely being castigated for enforcing the rules while many
other officials don't? I've said for a few years we've needed more refs like
Keith Hughes (who clipped Andre Berto early for clinching against Luis Collazo
in their fight, which opened up the action) that are willing to actually go by
the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Let's make this clear; Khan clearly broke the
rules dozens of times and was warned for them. What he was executing was not a
skill or a tactic but a violation of the rulebook - something that the HBO
announcing crew conveniently forgot.
And
if a referee's rulings make for better fights, who is opposed to that? (And
yeah, I know that other fighters like Muhammad Ali got away with murder for
years when it came to holding and grabbing opponents behind the neck. All that
tells me is that, then, those fights deserved better officiating)
Now,
I'm not saying we need to go to the letter of the law for every infraction but
it's been said in other sports like basketball for instance, that referees
could whistle fouls in every possession but will not do so unless a competitive
advantage is really gained. In my mind, the job of men like Cooper is to act as
a traffic cop and keep the flow of a fight going. I think he did that and
everyone that witnessed that pitched battle benefited from it.
While
there are rules and regulations that men like Cooper must enforce, the reality
is that every referee interprets them a bit differently, like an umpire's
strike zone differs from that of his colleagues. But I firmly believe that
while you can never change the fact that everyone will have slight variations
to what they call, across the board, all officials should be briefed on points
of emphasis (such as coming down on excessive holding in fights or what really
constitutes a low blow) for the near future. They do it every year in other
sports; it's time boxing does the same.
But
Mr. Cooper, my apologies. In the famous words of one Hank Stram: you did a
helluva job, one helluva job (First down!).
.
More of Steve Kim's recent work is linked below his contact information.
