TERRY O'CONNOR vs HOWARD FOSTER: WHO SHOULD RETIRE?

[Tuan_Jim]

Terry O'Connor, AKA 'The Real Meal'! What he doesn't know about refereeing could fit in the British Boxing Board of Control's 'Rules of Boxing' handbook. This man has more 1st round KOs than Mike Tyson - and he's still hungry.

Howard 'The Hemophobiac' Foster! The best finisher in boxing! Knocked down? It's over. Wobbled? It's over. None of the above? It's still over! Howard glides around that ring like he was covered in slime, and can rightly claim to be the first man to ever stop George Groves.

Boxing fans, we all know and admire the work of Terry O'Connor and Howard Foster. We cheer and applaud every time we see them introduced as referee before a big and important fight. But of course you can have too much of a good thing, and so I ask you, which referee would you like to retire permanently, in perpetuity, from boxing forever?

[Bard of Boxrec]

Terry O'Connor, AKA 'The Real Meal'! What he doesn't know about refereeing could fit in the British Boxing Board of Control's 'Rules of Boxing' handbook.

O'Connor has a long line of heinous offences. Until recently Howard Foster hadn't done an awful lot wrong.

It's O'Connor for me. The guy just doesn't know how to do his job, either as a referee or a judge.

Off the top of my head

Calzaghe/Manfredo early stoppage
Fury/McDermott robbery
Kovalev/Cleverly late stoppage, 'changed my mind' stoppage and carrying Cleverly back to corner
Khan/Prescott late stoppage

There will be a load more though

[deadpan]

TOC by a landslide points decision. 114-114.

[MightyWarrior]

TO'Connor wins

Foster dramatically waves it off as Terry ducks through the ropes on his way to the ring

[steve689]

The Board made Mickey Vann retire because he reached the stipulated age yet he's still refereeing in Ireland and is as fleet-footed and on the ball as ever. How can he be deemed unfit to officiate when that cumbersome lard bucket O'Connor is still blubbering around the ring?

[brian13]

If this was O Connor -V- Ian John Lewis then fair enough but why the hell are we comparing O' Connor and Foster? Terry O Connor is absolute joke and has always been terrible, Howard Foster just has a bad call here and now but he is a solid referee.

The board should have got rid of O' Connor after Fury / Mc Dermott I and yet he is still around being an awful referee and judge.

[gobbles]

Ian John-Lewis is the worst British ref/judge by some way

[Bodyshot3]

"Ladies and Gentleman, your judges at ringside tonight are...........Adelaide Byrd, Fernando Laguna and Terry O'Connor.
And for those of you still in the house, wishing to view this farce....your timekeeper is Mr. Sun Dial from Korea."

[whiskey]

Ian John-Lewis is the worst British ref/judge by some way

To be fair, he allowed Shannon Briggs to be almost beaten to death by Vitali.

He must score points back for that ?

[Rexob]

Both very experienced and distinguished boxing people

[brian13]

"Ladies and Gentleman, your judges at ringside tonight are...........Adelaide Byrd, Fernando Laguna and Terry O'Connor.
And for those of you still in the house, wishing to view this farce....your timekeeper is Mr. Sun Dial from Korea."

That is the not the worst at all. The judges could be Ian John Lewis or Terry O Connor , CJ Ross & Gale Van Hoy and the referee could be emile tiedt and Jim Watt is the commentator for the fight.

[Bodyshot3]

That is the not the worst at all. The judges could be Ian John Lewis or Terry O Connor , CJ Ross & Gale Van Hoy and the referee could be emile tiedt and Jim Watt is the commentator for the fight.

Common son, was having a laugh and gave it a whirl
No credit for my inept Korean timekeeper gag???

[handsofstone]

That is the not the worst at all. The judges could be Ian John Lewis or Terry O Connor , CJ Ross & Gale Van Hoy and the referee could be emile tiedt and Jim Watt is the commentator for the fight.

Common son, was having a laugh and gave it a whirl
No credit for my inept Korean timekeeper gag???

Well played sir

[The Law]

As per the other thread, please refrain from posting any potentially defamatory comments about the referees. By all means criticise them if you want but please don't post libellous allegations

[mickey1975]

As the great Bobby Vanzie said, after punching a window in in his dressing room after been blatantly robbed against Graham Earl "That Terry O'Connor needs sorting out "

[billy nelson]

Howard would be in my top 2 refs in the UK

[handsofstone]

Howard would be in my top 2 refs in the UK

Victor Loughlin's THE man

[charliebox324]

Howard would be in my top 2 refs in the UK

At Last Billy.Someone Who Knows What He Is Talking About.Thinks Some Posters On Here Should Get In Touch With British Boxing Board.Thats If They Can Get Out Of The Armchair And Off The Computer Keyboard.Adios

[Finn]

I think both are very decent. Yeah they've had some off nights but on the whole I think they are decent. I also don't think it was the shocking judging by O'Connor that people are going on about, one judge had a large landslide victory for Bellew, the other had it very close. Clev was outlanding Bellew for the 1st 9 rounds. I wouldn't personally score those crappy jabs though.

[crusader]

A bit strong there

Foster seems to be a solid ref apart from his tendency to stop fights early, but some of his stoppages (like Degale-Periban) have been WTF bad. I think he panics when he sees that someone is hurt.

[gazza8]

TOC is that good he has already scored the fury chisora fight barring a KO

117-111 Fury

[MightyWarrior]

To be fair, unlike O'Connor, Howard Foster is a decent ref - he's just unlucky enough to have made a high profile gaff in the first Froch/Groves fights - all ref's makes mistakes, even the very best. It wasn't a terrible error, as in home town / suspect or a badly late stoppage ( the worst ) it was just slightly bad timing, because GG did look just about finished at that the moment, but he definitely deserved the benefit of the doubt....

And the stoppage on Sat night wasn't awful, but on the back of his GG stoppage it just added to the impression of a ref who panics at the first sign of a fighter in trouble ( and DeGale's opponent certainly was in trouble ) to be fair to Foster, the first punch DeGale landed looked a finisher, then the 2nd punch on his way down looked a sickener too, so he rushed his decision a bit...but he doesn't deserve massive stick for it in hindsight.

[crusader]

And the stoppage on Sat night wasn't awful, but on the back of his GG stoppage it just added to the impression of a ref who panics at the first sign of a fighter in trouble ( and DeGale's opponent certainly was in trouble ) to be fair to Foster, the first punch DeGale landed looked a finisher, then the 2nd punch on his way down looked a sickener too, so he rushed his decision a bit...but he doesn't deserve massive stick for it in hindsight.

I don't agree with this. Periban was hurt but I don't think anything he got hit with looked like a finishing blow or a 'sickener'. He was also up fairly quickly, though I guess that means little given that Foster never counted. That was the first time Periban looked hurt and Foster gave him no chance of showing that he was okay, so in this case I think it was a very poor decision to stop the fight as quickly as he did.

[lefty]

And the stoppage on Sat night wasn't awful, but on the back of his GG stoppage it just added to the impression of a ref who panics at the first sign of a fighter in trouble ( and DeGale's opponent certainly was in trouble ) to be fair to Foster, the first punch DeGale landed looked a finisher, then the 2nd punch on his way down looked a sickener too, so he rushed his decision a bit...but he doesn't deserve massive stick for it in hindsight.

I don't agree with this. Periban was hurt but I don't think anything he got hit with looked like a finisher or a 'sickener'. He was also up fairly quickly, though I guess that means little given that Foster went to stop it as soon as he hit the canvas. That was the first time Periban looked hurt and Foster gave him no chance of showing that he was okay, so in this case I think it was a very poor decision to stop the fight as quickly as he did.

I agree. One thing i would say that was quite telling though was that Periban didnt seem to protest really which can be a good indicator that the fight was pretty badly hurt.

[lefty]

Ian John Lewis is by far the worse. These two make some clangers at times but he's in a league of his own.