Rogan: “Next Time He [Sexton] Won’t Even Hit Me”

By Boxing News - 05/18/2009 - Comments

By William Mackay: Former Commonwealth champion Martin Rogan (12-1, 6 KOs) was hopping mad after losing his title in a deeply controversial 8th round stoppage against British heavyweight Sam Sexton (12-1, 5 KOs) last Friday night at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Ireland. Rogan, 38, who was trailing in the fight going into the 8th, hurt the 24-year-old Sexton with a series of big shots and had him seemingly out on his feet and ready to go.

The referee Dave Parris had been very involved in the fight for the previous seven rounds, appeared ready to stop the fight when Rogan had Sexton out on his feet against the ropes. Rogan pointed out afterwards that’s why he didn’t try to finish Sexton off, because he thought that the referee was approaching to stop the fight.

However, all Parris did was put back in Sexton’s mouthpiece and then let the action resume. Rogan had a bad feeling about Parris starting in the 1st round when he said that he was given a warning by Parris after an accidental clash of heads with Sexton, saying “If I caught him [Sexton] again with my head, he [Parris] would throw me out.”

Rogan said that this made him feel uncomfortable and he fought less aggressively after the warning. Rogan had problems with Sexton’s movement including his jab, and found himself losing rounds to Sexton in the first six rounds of the fight.

Rogan hurt Sexton with some right hands in the 6th, but in the next round Sexton hurt Rogan a couple of times in the round with right hands. Rogan’s left eye, which had been swelling up since the previous round, began rapidly closing.

Parris stopped the action once in the 7th to have the ringside doctor examine the eye, but the doctor said it was alright. The 8th is where things got really weird after Rogan hurt Sexton with some monstrous shots and had him barely standing. In a lot of cases, with a fighter that badly hurt and drooping over the way that Sexton was, the referee would step in and halt the fight, but not in this case.

Rogan seemed to be confused for a second because he evidently thought that Parris was stepping in to stop the fight, but instead the referee chose to put back in the mouthpiece. The timing was bad, because Rogan had Sexton badly hurt. Then Rogan then was warned after hitting Sexton with his back turned.

However, Sexton was the one that turned his back and it wasn’t a case of Rogan reaching around him and hitting him purposely in the back. That was a warning that probably didn’t need to be given to Rogan, but Parris probably felt he was doing the right thing by preventing Rogan from finishing Sexton off when he had turned his back to him.

It probably would have ended right there had the referee not gotten in Rogan’s way to stop him from taking advantage of Sexton. After all of this, the referee then decided to stop the action and have Rogan’s eye looked at one more time.

I’m sure Parris probably could have held off on doing this if he had been mindful of how hurt Sexton was at the time, and how he was pretty much changing the course of the round by putting himself into the action so often. Nevertheless, the referee stopped the action and took Rogan over to the ringside doctor, who after determining that Rogan couldn’t see out of his left eye, he then stopped the fight.

The doctor was right to stop, and I suppose Parris was doing the right thing by having the doctor examine it, but given how he had been so involved in the earlier action in the round, it would have been better if he had held off for the little amount of time that was left in the round.

After the fight, a bitter Rogan said “next time he won’t even hit me and I’ll stop him.” That might be the best thing for Rogan to do, but he also needs to forget about playing it safe and worrying about the referee. Next time, Rogan should go right after Sexton and try to take him out as fast as possible.

Sexton has too good of a jab and he moves too well to let him stay in the fight longer than is necessary. If Rogan doesn’t go after Sexton early next time, he may very well risk having one of his eyes closed again due to Sexton’s jabs.



Comments are closed.