Martin Rogan lost his commonwealth title tonight due in no small part to the awful refereeing of Dave Parris. Rogie was making the first defense of the title against Prizefighter II winner, Sam Sexton, in front of a capacity crowd in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.
Sexton was making things difficult for Rogan throughout the contest with a stinging jab and some good right hands that soon had Rogan's left eye swollen and close to closing up. Rogie for his part was putting up a good fight against the younger man and looked to be hurting Sexton more than he was being hurt himself.
Referee Dave Parris continually gave unfair advantage to Sexton throughout the fight, he allowed Sexton to spoil every time Rogan got in close, in the 8th round (Rogan was probably going to be pulled out after this round due to the eye swelling) Rogan came out all guns blazing and had Sexton on the ropes, badly hurt, Sexton then turns his back to Rogan -which in my view should have been the end of the fight - but instead Parris saw fit to give Sexton a few seconds to recover by admonishing Rogan for hitting to the back of Sexton's head!
When the fight resumed, Rogan continued his attack and has Sexton out on his feet, then in a bizarre twist, either Rogan's punches caused Sexton's gumshield to come out or Sexton himself spit it out, Sexton points to his gumshield on the canvas, Rogan apparently stops so the referee can call a time out for Sexton to put his gum shield back in (Rogie should have went in for the kill here but sportsmanship or maybe inexperience stopped him from doing that), so Sexton takes this opportunity to catch Rogan with 3 punches while Rogan has his hands down. The referee then calls a time out for Sexton to put the gum shield back in, giving him another chance to compose himself when just seconds before a ko defeat looked imminent.
The fight resumes only for Dave Parris, for some strange reason, deciding that with 20 seconds to go in the round, and with Rogan looking close to stopping Sexton to retain his title, that it is the right time to call the doctor to look at Rogan's eye!
The fight was then stopped by the doctor who deemed Rogan unfit to continue.
In my opinion, this was one of the most bizarre and unprofessional refereeing I have seen in a long time and I will say without hesitation that in my view, Dave Parris cost Martin Rogan his commonwealth title.
Sexton seemed uninterested in a rematch in the post fight interview but in the interest of fairness Martin Rogan must be granted a rematch and maybe this time the BBBofC will ensure that there is a competant referee overseeing the fight.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)



0 comments:
Post a Comment