Over the weekend, Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares dueled to lay claim as the best bantamweight in the world in an exhilarating 12 round fight that had fans up in arms. But what they were up in arms with had nothing to do with the boxers—it was the referee. Russell Mora somehow overlooked Mares’s multiple groin shots and two phantom knockdowns, which ended up being the difference maker in the WBC Silver titlist Mares and IBF champion Joseph Agbeko and rewarded Mares with the victory.

The multiple low blows had even the Showtime commentary team throwing their hands up as it was so obvious, many people believed Mora was paid off to deliver such an awful night of officiating. But Mora is a stand up referee who has never been bribed.  This was all about negligence.

So should a referee be fined when they make a bad call? It’s a slippery slope but obviously something needs to be done when a ref costs a fighter or a team their winnings. In this case, Agbeko lost a majority decision and his IBF title. Should Mora be held accountable? I think so. He did such a bad job the whole boxing world was sick to their stomachs. I’m not suggesting he be banned from the sport, but upon review something needs to be done. Perhaps a small fine. I’m open to ideas. In other sports, referees inject themselves into the game. Although blown calls aren’t necessarily done on purpose, they still affect the athlete’s livelihood. Who’s going to have the guts to say “Hey, this is wrong.”

Perhaps I am reaching? What are your thoughts?

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