Corley Speaks out on What Went Down in Puerto Rico
 Am Exclusive Interview by Tom Dickey (March 5, 2005) 
"Chop Chop" Corley is coming off a very controversial loss to Miguel Cotto this past Saturday night in Puerto Rico. The fight was stopped in the fifth round when referee Ismael Quinones called off the fight after Corley took a knee. 'Chop Chop' had not even taken a punch when he took the knee, and two rounds prior Corley had Cotto badly hurt.

DeMarcus Corley talked to me about the referee, the fans, and the premature stoppage. Here's what he had to say.

QUESTION: Let me give you give the podium, and just tell me what you feel went down on Saturday night?

CORLEY: Going back to February 26th in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. I was fighting for the WBO title, and it was seen on HBO. There was talk that this was going to be a good fight. Going back to the first round, Cotto had me down, but he didn't finish me off, and it was really just a push. The referee made a mistake there. I then had him hurt bad in the third round. Then the referee in the fifth round took it on his own to stop the fight. I never got hit with a punch in the fifth when I went to a knee, and he stopped the fight. I felt Cotto won the first round, but in the second round I started boxing Cotto and moving, and I won the second round. In the third round he took a point away from Cotto for hitting me low. In the fourth round Cotto was holding my arms down, and I hit him low with a shot intended for the body. The ref didn't give either one of us a warning before taking a point. He just took it upon himself to take points from both of us without a warning. He should have given each of us a warning first. I don't know how many fights this referee has done, but he was very inexperienced for this fight.

QUESTION: In the third round you hurt Cotto probably worse then he had ever been hurt before, do you feel that that was worth a stoppage?

CORLEY: I think that if the fight was anywhere else and if you had a more experienced referee in there, then they would have stopped the fight. You can look back to when I fought Felix Flores. I had Flores less hurt than Cotto was and they stopped the fight. Cotto was out on his feet, and if it was anywhere else the referee would have jumped in there and stopped it. Since the fight was in Puerto Rico, and it was in Cotto's hometown, he had a referee in there that wasn't going to let him lose his title.

QUESTION: Do you feel because of Cotto's bloated up weight, that it would not have been beneficial for Cotto to let the fight go into the later rounds?

CORLEY: In the game plan for this fight we trained extremely hard to take Cotto in the later rounds, because we knew that he was going to blow up and he would fade in the later rounds. Cotto had to weigh in four times to make 140 pounds. He didn't get on the scale and make weight the first, second, or third time. It took him four times to make weight. So, we knew he would come into the fight blown up and that in the later rounds he would fade.

QUESTION: Do you feel there should be something done in Boxing where a guy shouldn't be able to blow up almost 20 pounds before a fight?

CORLEY: They should do something about it, but I don't think they will. The most a fighter should be able to put on is 8-9 pounds. Cotto has to come down almost 20 pounds just to make weight.

QUESTION: Top Rank had already had a planned fight scheduled for Cotto in June, do you feel that had something to due with what happened?

CORLEY: If our protest goes right then he will have to fight me on that date. Top Rank told my manager right after the fight in the ring, that we gotta do a rematch because this wasn't right. Then at the press conference Bob Arum said that he would get word from my promoter Don King and that we would do a rematch.

QUESTION: After what happened on the 26th, would you ever fight outside of the United States again?

CORLEY: Yeah I would, I have no problems with that. It was just the referee. It wasn't Cotto, it wasn't Cotto's camp, it wasn't the judges. We just had a very inexperienced referee for this fight.

QUESTION: If a rematch was set would you want it to not be in Puerto Rico?

CORLEY: I wouldn't want it to be in Puerto Rico, because it got real hostile in Puerto Rico the day of the weigh in. There was a couple of people, and a old man that I believe if they could have gotten close enough wanted to hurt me. If he could have gotten close enough to me I believe he may have stuck me with a knife or something. He was saying real harsh words and foul language towards me. He was even gesturing me by grabbing his scrotum, and saying what Cotto was going to do to me. He was even saying what they were going to do to me in Puerto Rico. I was just thinking damn, this old man really wants to hurt me, it's just a fight, it's not that serious. But, they have that much belief in their Puerto Rican fighters. After the fight, the crowd started throwing stuff in the ring. They threw cups and cans at me in the ring. Then when we left the ring they were throwing beer, cups, and cans at me, and we had to cover up. I was already getting mad and I had a water bottle in my hand, and a guy threw a beer can at me. I wanted to throw the water bottle at him, but my trainer just told me no and let's just go the back. I was real upset.

QUESTION: I think you exposed some flaws in Cotto, how would you compare him to Zab Judah or Floyd Mayweather, who you also fought?

CORLEY: I'm glad you asked that, because about five minutes ago I was just telling my manager that Cotto would not beat either one of those two. If the rematch don't take place they are going to be looking at putting him in with someone that Cotto can walk through. He's not going to fight a fighter with world class experience. He can't fight fast, and he can't fight smart. He can't fight a Sharmba, he can't fight a Kostya Tszyu. He could fight like Ricky Hatton or Vivian Harris, because they don't have that world class championship experience. So he could fight one of those two or somebody within the top 15 in the WBO rankings.

QUESTION: Don King has filed a protest on your behalf for what went down last Saturday night, can you get into that a little bit more?

CORLEY: We got the word today that the protest has been sent to the commission of the WBO for a rematch. They are going to review the fight, and the referee. Especially the fact the referee did not speak English to me. He just waved the fight off, he never counted or checked me to see if I was ok or hurt. I slipped four punches and I went down to a knee, and the referee took it upon himself to stop the fight, and that was bad judgment.

QUESTION: Is there anything else that you want to say to the public about this fight?

CORLEY: They should get better referees for world title fights, referees that have the experience refereeing a world title fight. I can understand how Judah felt when he fought Kostya Tszyu and Jay Nady stopped the fight early. I felt he should have gotten one more chance to make it out of that round. If he would have let the fight go, we might have seen a different outcome.
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