Comments Thread For: Referee Explains Why He Saved Lemieux From Golovkin

[sparkman0811]

Nah, fight was stopped at the right time. If you see the last set of punches, GGG lands a nasty body shot to the liver that makes Lemieux fold at his torso, drop his right hand toward his liver and make a groaning face in agony. He was taking a lot of punishment and wasn't really in the fight. No point in letting it continue. Most knew the outcome for this one.

[mjgaz6]

A DQ would have been excessive. The DQ in the Abraham-Dirrell fight has gone down in history for the pathetic scene it created. And that was an innocent mistake during a slip. GGG was in kill-mode.

Taking a point and giving DL extra time to recover would have been wise since that was a real damaging, potentially KO punch.

Inconsistency is bad. You can't have some refs ignoring shots on the ground completely and others instantly disqualifying.

Dirrell didn't fight again for about 6 years. That fight really messed his life up. I'm fine with dirty fight tactics, but GGG crossed line. When a guy takes a knee that's it - you don't come in there and sucker punch. Also, he had several questionable punches at or just after the bell. Just saying...

[Barcham]

You don't have to keep me informed about Ward's career -- I did my homework long ago... Ward fought at the Olympics at light-heavy just because he wanted to let his buddy A. Dirrell compete at the middleweights in that competition. But Ward turned pro at 160 -- division he left immediately after that 'famous' Boone fight, remember?

IMO, at this stage, nobody (of notice) at 168 would like to fight Ward... At 175, Ward would easily beat 'top guys' such as Fonfara, Cleverly... or even Stevenson or Pascal... But because of 'networks war', Ward might only fight the likes of Pascal, Chilemba, Murat, a.s.o...

There is no proof of that at all. I have seen nothing from Ward or his camp stating that they have trouble finding opponents at 168. They do not seem to have even tried to find decent fights for Ward. At ANY weight. All you hear from Ward and his camp is GGG, GGG and more GGG. Why are they focusing on a damn middleweight? Why doesn't Ward go out there and challenge for SMW titles? Why is he not putting the same energy trying to get champions in his own division to fight him as he is chasing a smaller guy around?

[mjgaz6]

I maintain that it wasn't a good stoppage because the guy that got stopped is going around complaining about it. Now, he didn't complain at the time and it wasn't the most premature stoppage I have ever seen, but the ref should have been audibly warning DL that he was getting close to stopping it. And he should have also done so in between rounds. Considering DL had only gone down once and that was on his own violition and responsibly done I don't think you can stop that fight where he did. If you saw DL's face in the interview afterwards, he didn't look that bad.

[puro dinamita]

the late hit ggg gave lemieux deserved a point deduction but if it was a humberto soto they would of disqualified him lemieux hurt ggg several time explains why he chose to box lemieux will definitely be seeing him again he didn't want to trade bombs with him say what you want but he felt the punches against lemieux

[puro dinamita]

Dirrell didn't fight again for about 6 years. That fight really messed his life up. I'm fine with dirty fight tactics, but GGG crossed line. When a guy takes a knee that's it - you don't come in there and sucker punch. Also, he had several questionable punches at or just after the bell. Just saying...

i agree 100% he was trying to get him out of there he wanted no part of lemieux fairly he was doing everything illegal to get him out lemieux was getting to him man he wanted nothing from him never tried to tade but he boxed a hella good fight though

[IMDAZED]

Viloria was valiant but Lemieux wasn't?
Viloria wasn't a tune-up but Lemieux was?
Its time for Roman to step up in weight and fight some of the guys above him, not much of a climb in weight for him to make it, he's prove everything he could possibly do at this weight.

Lemieux is a better fighter than Viloria and If anything he put on a better display than Viloria.

Whatever you say, guy.

[MDPopescu]

There is no proof of that at all. I have seen nothing from Ward or his camp stating that they have trouble finding opponents at 168. They do not seem to have even tried to find decent fights for Ward. At ANY weight. All you hear from Ward and his camp is GGG, GGG and more GGG. Why are they focusing on a damn middleweight? Why doesn't Ward go out there and challenge for SMW titles? Why is he not putting the same energy trying to get champions in his own division to fight him as he is chasing a smaller guy around?

This brings me back to my usual assessment: Ward lost any desire to fight whatsoever... The guy even contemplated retirement last year ('after 20 years of boxing'.)

[mathed]

I thought the ref should have at least given him the rest of the round to show something. Most of the shots that GGG threw during that barrage didn't even land.

[Barcham]

This brings me back to my usual assessment: Ward lost any desire to fight whatsoever... The guy even contemplated retirement last year ('after 20 years of boxing'.)

Maybe he should have retired. Better than becoming a bitter has been looking to regain his glory by fighting a smaller man who has better fights to take care of and no reason to move up for an irrelevant fight against an irrelevant fighter.