WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) was disappointed in the performance of referee Tony Weeks for the job that he put in while working Mayweather’s previous fight against the aggressive Argentinian Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) last May at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Maidana was able to foul Mayweather early and often in the fight in hitting low, throwing elbows and rabbit punches. While you can say the stuff was accidental on Maidana’s part, Weeks failed to take points away from Maidana to help him improve his aim. Maidana was given a warning for a low blow, but no points were taken off.
“Just like me, I can have a bad night, still be victorious,” Mayweather said via Mlive.com. “He can have a bad night as a ref and still be a great ref.”
Weeks isn’t known for being the type of referee that calls a lot of fouls. If you look at his previous fights, he’s not someone that takes over a fight and calls fouls left and right. In the Lucas Matthysse vs. Danny Garcia fight, for example, Garcia got away with a lot of holding in the fight without being penalized.
Garcia also was given credit for a knockdown after he shoved Matthysse into the ropes, causing him to get tangled. While Matthysse was trying to get untangled, Garcia hit him with a flurry of shots to score a controversial knockdown. The knockdown shouldn’t have been allowed given that Garcia shoved Matthysse into the ropes where he got caught.
“If the commission picks him again, I’m OK with that,” Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said to Mlive.com. “I think Tony Weeks is a tremendous referee. He just had a bad night. He missed a few things. It happens. Would I be against him working another fight? Absolutely not.”
The odds of the Commission selecting Weeks for a second consecutive Mayweather-Maidana fight is fairly remote, but you never know.
Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia said that Maidana is going to make it rougher than he did the last time they fought when he gets in the ring with Mayeather on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
