By William Mackay: After seeing how good a job referee Joe Cortez did in breaking up the action when Marcos Maidana was trying to work inside on WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan last Saturday night, I wonder if Khan and Golden Boy Promotions will be sure use Cortez in the future? I think they should. If you got a fighter that isn’t a good inside fighter like Khan, it helps to have a referee that has a habit of separating fighters when they’re trying to battle in close. For Khan, it would be a big plus if he can fight only on the outside because he’s vulnerable in close, as we saw last Saturday night.

Cortez, out of habit, has a habit of separating fighters when they’re fighting in close. Maidana had Khan hurt in the 10th round last Saturday night, and was pounding the stuffing out of Khan while being held by one arm. Cortez instead of letting Maidana continue to work with his free hands, kept breaking them apart and pushing Maidana back away. This gave Khan space to fight and perhaps even saved him from being knocked out. This is just how Cortez refs fights, and it’s not a bad thing necessarily as long as you’re the guy with the better skills on the outside like Khan. But if you’re a fighter that does his best work on close like Maidana, you might have problems. I think it might be wise for Khan to continue to use Cortez if possible when facing good inside fighters in the future.