No Holds Barred: Keisha Morrisey on the Agbeko-Mares Refereeing Disgrace

On this audio edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our colleague and correspondent Keisha Morrisey (http://keishamorrisey.com).

In the August 13 bantamweight title fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, between Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares, referee Russell Mora let Mares land countless low blows without even deducting a point, much less disqualifying him. In the eleventh round, Mora even counted for a knockdown after Agbeko went down from a clear shot to the groin by Mares. This was one of the worst refereeing jobs in modern boxing history, and made the majority decision victory awarded to Mares virtually meaningless.

Outrage has been virtually unanimous among those who saw the fight (except, of course, from the referee), and many are calling for an immediate rematch, as well as nullifying the decision. The New Jersey commission suspended all three judges after their absurd decision in the Lara-Williams fight earlier this year, so it will be instructive to see what action if any the Nevada commission takes regarding Mora.

We spoke by phone late Saturday night right after the Agbeko-Mares fight with Keisha Morrisey. We discussed the refereeing in this fight, what it says about the continuously declining state of boxing, what should be done next, and much more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
http://eddiegoldman.com

Wow, Eddie. At what time did you make this? I was anxious to here your take on this, and am so thankful that you were able to put it out so quickly. I'll be listening now.

Ref was incompetent, but not crooked or shady.
Sucks for Mares.

Gavilan, I must disagree on both counts, the one being that the ref was merely incompitent, and the other being that it sucks for Mares.

Mares would've lost the fight, if not for the officiating. And even in spite of all of the bullshit, the 11th round swung the fight from a draw to a Mares decision, because of the 4 point swing.

I don't know how you can honestly and in good faith be an apologist for the referee here. Unless by incompetent you mean incompetent in terms of not making his shady intentions too obvious.

"Latin ref going for the Latin fighter" is racist bullshit.

If I was "apologist", I've would've said he did a great job.

Here's the crooked and shady ref, clearly had money on Montiel.

Sounds like Keisha(Black) was going for Agbeko(Black).

You might have a point with respect to the ref being racist.


Bro, the ref has a history. This is the same ref who DQ'd Anthony Peterson for landing a few low blows against Brandon Rios. And there are a number of other examples, I've seen several referenced, but the Rios fight is the most clear one I can remember at the moment, on the fly as it were. It isn't as though that sort of statement is without precedent, although I should really let Eddie speak for himself, if he so chooses, but the so-called Latin fighter bias has been thrown around, and it is a legitimate point of concern, given the history of this particular referee.

Have some more sour grapes though. You seem bitter that your guy was on the winning end of what was hands down one of the most farcical boxing matches I've seen, in all the years I've been following the sport.

Kid Gavilan wrote:

Here's the crooked and shady ref, clearly had money on Montiel.

What exactly is your point?

"Sour grapes", "bitter"? That's the best personal attacks you have?

Take that stick out of your ass and calm down.

They weren't personal attacks, I think metaphors is a more appropriate concept.

You are the one who needs to calm down. It is you who is making illogical and irrational statements, not I.

For the record, I have always liked Mares, but that fight was an absolute farce. The fact that Mares barely "won" the fight under such circumstances also doesn't reflect well on him, either.

The only somewhat just solution is an immediate rematch, however if Mares were to fight Donaire, the fight would be a mismatch. Donaire would destroy Mares. Agbeko is a damn good fighter too, but not on Donaire's level, however I wouldn't put it past Agbeko to stop Mares in a rematch (if there was fair officiating of course).

Kid Gavilan wrote:Ref was incompetent, but not crooked or shady.
Sucks for Mares.

How can you make that conclusion????

We recorded the show shortly after the fight. I’m used to working late after fights. Keisha said she has roots in Ghana, but also said she had to re-watch the fight to see if Agbeko won.

I don’t know the ref’s motives, but he is at best clearly incompetent. He has a growing record of dangerous calls, as listed above here. There should be an investigation of him, but I doubt the Nevada commission is willing to deal with any possible corruption.

Incompetent?

Lets be real here, any referee at that level knows what a damn low blow is. You could take a person off the street who would call those shots low.

StillWill wrote:Incompetent?

Lets be real here, any referee at that level knows what a damn low blow is. You could take a person off the street who would call those shots low.

This. There's incompetency, and then there's being corrupt. I think the low blow that was called a knock down quite clearly put this into the "corrupt" category. My 88 year old half blind Great Grandmother would have called that a low shot.