Mickey Vann: Referee at fault during Sergey Kovalev's win over Nathan Cleverly

[Mofo2]

NATHAN CLEVERLY tried his best but alas it wasn’t good enough. In all honesty, from the first bell, it was a case of man against boy. We build our fighters up so high, and expect so much, and all too often we are let down.

Terry O’Connor, the referee, gave him every chance although I thought he erred somewhat. The result would have been the same, but he seemed to step in and call the fight off one second from the end of the third round. But then the bell went, he changed his mind, and he let Cleverly out for the next round.

Instead, he could have warned or disqualified Kovalev for twice hitting the Welshman while he was on the floor. If he didn’t disqualify him, he could have given Kovalev a warning for the illegal punches thus allowing Cleverly some time to recover. That’s the art of refereeing; you have rules and you have guidelines so use the rules as guidelines.

Source: vann Blogg

[blackrican23]

ref tried to save clevs ass is how I remember it