Manchester's Pride Falls

Ricky Hatton has just lost to "he whom we no longer speak of" in a 10th round knockout. One person we will speak of, however, is referee Joe Cortez.

Ricky is an inside fighter and a brawler. With arms 6" shorter than "he whom we no longer speak of", his job is to get inside and well...brawl. That's exactly why I thought him the man to do the impossible, beat the undefeated blowhard senseless. Joe Cortez apparently knew nothing of the needs or wants of Ricky Hatton, nor of a brawlers only game plan against a tactician. Hell, I wonder now if Joe Cortez knows anything about boxing at all. For the first six rounds he immediately separated the two fighters as soon as Hatton got inside and began to jockey for punching position. Hello...Hello...Earth to Mr. Cortez...How about letting the man pursue his only chance at winning the fight? It was like Cortez was on the payroll of Hatton's opposition at the worst, or had his head up his own ass at the least. Everyone knew what Hatton had to do to win, and the wrong man stopped him

Unfortunately, Hatton never got an opportunity to explode from the inside. Worse, he ate so many right hands just trying to get in there, that by the 8th round when Mr. Cortez awoke from his coma or heard the check had bounced and finally let them fight, Hatton was already finished. But he was never given a chance in my opinion, and I paid $54.95 to see the worst referee job I have ever seen in boxing.