Will the real Joe Cortez please stand up!

[carpediem]

As this keeps coming up on the fight threads, and I've only seen him ref two fights, I would like to ask others for thier opinion on Joe Cortez. Clearly he is a respected official but what I'm getting at is, generally, the less you notice the ref the better. In these two big fights I've watched (Mayweather V Hatton & Calazghe V Hopkins) the referee has occupied a great deal of my attention. The quote below goes right to the heart of the matter although it doesn't go far enough:-

"The ref was an ass. He spit hatton up for holding...but he let B hop hold for as long as he wanted. Can somebody explain this to me?"

To be precise Cortez split Hatton & Mayweather up BEFORE there was a chance for any holding, whenever they came within about a foot of one another for a second or more. Bhop enganges in a greco roman wrestling match and he warns him lots. Way to go.

I said above I've only seen him ref two fights but thinking about it I'm not sure this is accurate. I've probably seen him ref fights but not noticed him. Whereas in these two fights he really stood out for me.

 

[Diomedes]

I see what you're saying, but to be fair to Cortez in these two fights it was basically inevitable that we were going to be hearing a lot from the ref.

Perhaps less so in the Mayweather/Hatton fight, where it was more subjective (some refs are going to call Hatton's excessive holding, some aren't), but in the case of Hopkins/Calzaghe it was simply a dirty fight and Cortez managed to ref the fight without deducting any points or unduly influencing the outcome. To me, that says he's done a reasonable job.

 

[carpediem]

I suppose its possible he made an effort to intervene less given the bad reaction some people had to the Hatton fight. I have no problem with breaking when people are holding, yelling "stop boxing" when people are just standing in front of each other is just bizarre.

In this fight he kept threatening to take a point but that really isn't much of a threat whe you say i for the fifth time

 

[Diomedes]

Yeah true, fair point.

Both guys were at fault in this case for the grappling and other stunts though and it would have been a shame to see a point somehow influence the outcome.

 

[prie$t]

Every corner tries to work the referee in anyway they can and that's what happened in the Hatton Mayweather fight, If you look at that fight Cortez for the most part was looking directly at Hatton so thats all he saw. Fighters will try and get any advantage they can it's part and parcel of the sport.
It's kinda like when you're looking at something then someone points out a flaw in it then thats all you see.

 

[carpediem]

"Every corner tries to work the referee in anyway they can and that's what happened in the Hatton Mayweather fight"

But surely if he's a top notch ref you would think he just might be aware of this fact????

I agree with this though

"It's kinda like when you're looking at something then someone points out a flaw in it then thats all you see."

this is basically what happened to me, because I was aware of the Hatton fight and the way it was reffed I immediately picked up on the fact that Cortez was doing nothing in this fight to enforce the rules.

 

[Primebeatz]

Cortez is one of the best refs, But he breaks the fighters too quickly, wich does not allow for much infighting.

 

[Czechvarmander]

I've found Cortez to be one of the finer refs around.

In fact in David Diazs' last fight the HBO crew was commending him for his fine work.

In the two fights you mentioned essentially any referee would have been forced to play a large role in the fight.
As well I don't see anything wrong with his actions in either fight, in both cases the better man that night won.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Cortez is generally good. But the way he officiated the Mayweather-Hatton fight was questionable. Besides having little to say when Mayweather deliberately rammed Hatton with forearms/elbows, he was indeed very quick to create distance between Mayweather and Hatton.

 

[prie$t]

"Every corner tries to work the referee in anyway they can and that's what happened in the Hatton Mayweather fight"

But surely if he's a top notch ref you would think he just might be aware of this fact????

the thing is though there's nothing wrong with a corner pointing out and making the referee aware of what his/her opponent could potentially do especially if it involves bending or flat out breaking the rules.

like CEROVFC mentioned Mayweather uses his elbows/forearms, its nothing new he just rarely if ever gets called out on it. Maybe one day he will and it maybe cost him a fight.

As for Cortez the general census is that he's a good referee and i have to agree, refereeing is a thankless job, you do your job right and nobody heres about, you make a mistake controversial or questionable call and your the bad guy.

 

[BlacknBlue]

I thought Calzhage got away with a few too many to the back of the head myself (and I was rooting for Calzahge), but overall I thought Cortez did a decent job in there.

I thought he was going to take a point away for low blows, but was impressed that he didn't. I'll have to watch the fight again, but watching it live, it looked like a bit of gamesmanship on B-Hop's part.

Hopkin's held, Calzaghe got away with a few borderline cheapshots. It all evened out in the end in my opinion.

 

[jamielowndes]

Im glad someone else picked up on this, because Cortez had an amazingly different showing to that screwjob between Hatton and Mayweather

 

[KO Cav]

As this keeps coming up on the fight threads, and I've only seen him ref two fights, I would like to ask others for thier opinion on Joe Cortez. Clearly he is a respected official but what I'm getting at is, generally, the less you notice the ref the better. In these two big fights I've watched (Mayweather V Hatton & Calazghe V Hopkins) the referee has occupied a great deal of my attention. The quote below goes right to the heart of the matter although it doesn't go far enough:-

"The ref was an ass. He spit hatton up for holding...but he let B hop hold for as long as he wanted. Can somebody explain this to me?"

To be precise Cortez split Hatton & Mayweather up BEFORE there was a chance for any holding, whenever they came within about a foot of one another for a second or more. Bhop enganges in a greco roman wrestling match and he warns him lots. Way to go.

I said above I've only seen him ref two fights but thinking about it I'm not sure this is accurate. I've probably seen him ref fights but not noticed him. Whereas in these two fights he really stood out for me.

Hopkins was clinching defensively whereas Hatton looks to hold to set up his offense. I think that's the difference.

 

[jamielowndes]

Hopkins was clinching defensively whereas Hatton looks to hold to set up his offense. I think that's the difference.

He was clinching to draw in a few cheapshots where and when he could. I counted 4 in the same round that he took 3 mins to survive the non effectual low blow in the history of sports. Hatton got cut off before he could even attack

 

[^Ruth_Rage^]

Cortez wanted the American fighters to win ... that simple really!

 

[Czechvarmander]

Cortez wanted the American fighters to win ... that simple really!

And in the Hatton - Castillo fight where Cortez warned Castillo about clinching?

Does he hate on Brits only when they're fighting Americans?
Or does he have the transitory power that he sequentially likes Americans, then Brits, then Mexicans.

Cortez has ref'd a countless number of fights, and this is lame to say but I do think he's "firm but fair."

It's not really Cortez fault that people have only seen him ref two fights, two in which he would have to become a factor due to the participants, and also that people forget the fact that he handled Hatton in the same matter in the Castillo fight. Do people only forget that because Hatton won?

 

[KO Cav]

He was clinching to draw in a few cheapshots where and when he could. I counted 4 in the same round that he took 3 mins to survive the non effectual low blow in the history of sports. Hatton got cut off before he could even attack

Hatton- holds and hits

Hopkins- hits and holds

Worlds of difference between the two.

 

[Sinister]

Don't waste your intelligence KO. They don't WANT to understand the difference.

 

[Dogmeat]

Don't waste your intelligence KO. They don't WANT to understand the difference.

Nuh-uh! Our Ricky would have won if it hadn't been for that dastardly ref! It was nothing to do with the clean knockout or anything!

There's only OOOOOOOONE Ricky Hatton!!

 

[MeBig]

I don't like Joe Cortez, and I'm not a fan of him trying to be the Ron Burgundy of boxing referees with this 'fair but firm' shit.