?Live by the slogan, die by the slogan,? is what I always say.
That having been said, in Saturday night?s fight between Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz, Joe Cortez was hardly firm.
And to everyone watching, that just didn?t seem fair.
You already know what happened. Victor Ortiz described it very well. ?The ref said something and I was like ?What?? I thought he called a break. I?m pretty sure he did,? he said. ?Then, I woke up.?
Of course, there was some stuff in between.
Here are a few observations:
* Can they shorten the Mexican national anthem a little?
* Apologizing once for the intentional head butt is enough. The second time is overkill, and the third time, well, you?re just being a pain in the ass.
* From a technical standpoint, Mayweather wasn?t really wrong. As they say (and as he was very quick to point out), you?ve got to protect yourself at all times. Maybe that?s why he carries a gun around the neighborhood he lives in, which is filled with multi-million dollar homes.
* Payback is kind of a bitch.
* I?ve got the feeling that if he really wanted to, Victor Ortiz could have gotten up. But hey, it?ll be nice to put a couple of million dollars in the bank.
* I?m well aware of his athletic background (at the University of Oklahoma, if you can believe it), but if Larry Merchant was fifty years younger, he STILL couldn?t kick Mayweather?s ass, although it was thoughtful of him to say it.
* This is when we could REALLY use ?Mayweather-Ortiz 24/7″
* And finally, if you really wants someone to lay the lion?s share of the blame with, point to the third man in the ring.
Putting this as delicately as I possibly can under the circumstances, I have always been left rather uncomfortable with officials who are better at promoting themselves than the fighters are. That?s because they tend to do things that get them attention. When I was working with USA Network, referees constantly used to approach the production team, with ideas on what they could do, or what they could demonstrate, so they could be part of some feature story or segment. Maybe it was pure ego; maybe the exposure helped them in some other area of business. Maybe it was to get the attention of some sanctioning body so they could get some championship assignments. Who the hell knows.
