By Michael Byrne: Already people are in uproar about about British heavyweight Derekc Chisora’s third-round stoppage win tonight over Ondrej Pala. Chisora, a few feet away from the corner with his back to it, beat Pala into the corner with hard combinations, leaving Pala slumped over the corner, and his arms over the ropes. Chisora then proceeded to rabbit punch him flush in the back of the head, and throw another hook around the head, before the ref stepped in and waved it off without counting or consulting Pala.

There are topical shouts of ‘Froch-Groves!’ going around, and comparisons to the questionable stoppage against Malik Scott. However, I’m going to defend the stoppage.

Yes, it was dirty of Chisora to punch Pala in the back of the head. That’s not a very good way to gain fans. However it must be asked, what was Pala doing? He just stood there limply. Defend yourself at all times. Chisora took advantage of Pala’s inability to do so. The referee then did his job and stopped the fight. A very strange stoppage, but only because of Pala’s actions.

The referee had just watched him get beaten face-first into the corner, and take two hard, albeit dirty, shots to the back of the head without doing anything to defend himself. The referee has got to stop that action. As it happened, Pala proceeded to show his legs were still under him and he appeared fine as he disputed the decision with the referee and then with Chisora.

The fight was also a competitive one up to that point, with both men landing hurtful punches. However, the referee, making split-second decisions based on what his eyes are showing him, rightfully stopped the action. This was nothing like the Carl Froch – George Groves stoppage, where the referee head-locked Groves in center-ring after Groves, still stood and moving with his guard up, took a couple of combinations. That was a terrible decision. This one was strange, but correct.