(Photo credit: Edward Diller/DiBella Entertainment) By Dan Ambrose: Peter Quillin (32-1-1, 23 KOs) says he has no problems whatsoever with referee Harvey Dock stopping his fight against WBA “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) in the 1st round last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
There was a bit of controversy surrounding the quick stoppage of the fight by the referee Dock, because a lot of boxing fans felt that Quillin was in good enough shape for the fight to be allowed to continue after Quillin had been badly staggered by two huge punches from Jacobs.
Some fans even thought that the referee should have given Quillin a standing eight count. However, the WBA doesn’t have a standing eight count, so it wasn’t something that the referee could employ on his own without getting into a ton of hot water for using one.
“Harvey [Dock] was definitely doing his job,” Quillin said after the fight. “It’s best that people that do that job do the best that they can to avoid situations like that. Anything is possible, a rematch. I need to sit down with my family and talk it over. As a fighter, you’re going to say ‘rematch.’ Of course, you’re going to say ‘I want a rematch,’ but I’m going to need to sit down with my team and come up with the best plan for Peter Quillin. It’s something [moving up to super middleweight] I’m going to really, really consider. I know there’s some big names up there,” Quillin said about the 168lb division.
If you look at the replay of the fight, Quillin was in dire shape after Jacobs nailed him with a right hand to the head. Quillin backed up against the ropes and was hit by at least 20 head shots from Jacobs. The final one was a right hand that staggered Quillin badly. At that point the referee Harvey Dock stepped in between Jacobs and Quillin to keep Jacobs from hitting the defenseless Quillin.
It was at this point that Quillin staggered across the ring and turned around to try and continue fighting. But the fight was already pretty much over from the referee having stepped in between Jacobs and Quillin moments earlier. There was no point in the referee stepping in to keep Jacobs from finishing Quillin off unless he was halting the fight. For that reason, it didn’t matter that Quillin was able to walk to the other side of the ring to try and regain his bearings.
Dock had already essentially put an end to the fight by intruding on Jacobs while he was attempting to finish Quillin off. A referee isn’t supposed to step in and save a fighter from taking a beating unless they’re stopping the fight, which is what Dock eventually did. Where Dock made a blunder in the fight is by stopping the fight immediately when he did step in to get in between Jacobs and Quillin after Quillin had been staggered.
If a referee is going to step in like that, he’s going to be assertive and know what he’s doing. Dove looked clueless for a moment by getting in the way of Jacobs and then delaying the stoppage. In stepping in between them initially, Dove should have made the stoppage right then and there rather than saving Quillin and then stopping the fight after he had staggered across the ring like a wino.
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