From a universal standpoint, a professional athlete doesn’t want a referee to take a contest out of his or her hands, and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday night, Jan. 6th, when boxing referee Tony Weeks prematurely stopped the junior-middleweight contest between Vergil Ortiz Jr and Fredrick Lawson.
Coming into the bout, Vergil Ortiz was making his return to the squared circle after his battle with a serious medical condition.
Ortiz was out of the ring for 17 months, and on the night of Jan. 6th, he was set to make his debut in the junior-middleweight division.
His opponent, Fredrick Lawson, was a big underdog, but he entered the boxing match confident he could pull off a massive upset. In the opening round of the scheduled 12-round bout, both Ortiz and Lawson were trying to establish the jab.
With 40 seconds left to go in the 1st round, Ortiz landed a stiff jab that buckled the knees of Lawson. Ortiz proceeded to throw a flurry of punches, but most of the shots were being blocked by Lawson’s high guard.
Despite the fact that most of the punches were hitting Lawson’s gloves, referee Tony Weeks still decided to step in and put a halt to the contest. Due to the premature stoppage, Weeks received a chorus of boos from the crowd.
After the fight, Weeks was the recipient of criticism from boxing pundits and the media. In an attempt to explain his reasoning behind stopping the fight, Weeks decided to justify himself via social media.
In a Facebook post that was published and then immediately deleted, referee Tony Weeks claims that he had a valid reason in regards to the stoppage that most fans are labeling as being premature.
“What the public didn’t know is that prior to the fight, they did a brain scan on him, and it came up that he had an aneurysm, and they did the same test again, and the aneurysm came up,” Weeks said. “Another doctor was brought in and gave him the same examination, and he tested negative for the aneurysm, so they cleared him to fight.”
Golden Boy, the promoter for the Ortiz Jr-Lawson bout, made an immediate response to the controversial claim.
“Fredrick Lawson was cleared by a Nevada State Athletic Commission-sanctioned doctor to fight on Saturday night,” Golden Boy wrote. “All other questions should be referred to the NSAC.”
The Nevada State Athletic Commission rejected Tony Weeks’ claim, and the NSAC proceeded to release a statement of their own.
“The health and safety of the unarmed combatants that compete in the state are paramount to the Commission,” the NSAC stated. “All contestants in the event were subject to full medical examinations.”
Fans and boxing pundits feel outraged due to the fact that Tony Weeks prematurely stopped the Rolly Romero-Ismael Barroso fight eight months ago.
Former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi stated a hypothetical that maybe Tony Weeks bets on fights, and another former world champion, Shawn Porter stated the hypothetical that maybe Tony Weeks is declining.
“Let’s make sure Tony gets checked out, and let’s make sure everything is okay because that’s a mistake you can’t make twice,” Porter said on the PorterWay Podcast. “At this point, it’s about responsibility. You took something from Barroso, and he came back and got it. And then you took something away from Fredrick Lawson.”
Some in the boxing public think the 67-year-old Tony Weeks should retire, and others think he should be suspended. So what’s next for Tony Weeks? More than likely, it will be business as usual. Despite making another critical error, Weeks will not be held accountable, and for him, it will be on to the next gig.
