Floyd Mayweather, in an interview with FightHype, says that he believes Peter Quillin didn't get enough of a chance to recover before the referee, Harvey Dock, decided to step in and end the fight in the first round. Floyd did, however, give Daniel Jacobs full credit for taking care of his business inside the ring.
"Safety is very, very important, but I think it was stopped a little bit too early. When I watched the fight, Danny Jacobs hit him with a good shot and he hit him with another good shot. He staggered and I'm thinking the referee is going to grab him and start counting. You basically could think he's about to give him an 8-count, but he jumps in to stop it," Mayweather explained.
It should probably be noted that the WBA doesn't utilize a standing 8-count, so that wasn't really an option, but Mayweather believes Quillin should have been given more of a chance to continue. Floyd draws analogies to his own experiences, saying when he's been staggered if the referee hadn't given him a chance to continue he wouldn't have retired undefeated.
"They should have used a referee that's refereed a lot of championship fights. A guy works so hard to get to that point just to get hit with a couple of shots, get the rubber legs, the spaghetti legs; I mean, it's not really bad to take a knee, but he didn't go down, and then for a referee to hop in and stop it? You know, go look at the highlights of my fight with Shane Mosley. When I was fighting Shane Mosley, I got hit with some vicious shots. My legs buckled twice, but I gathered myself and regrouped because they gave me a chance. I'm glad that the referee gave me a chance and an opportunity. If the referee didn't give me a chance or an opportunity, then I wouldn't be TBE in today's time. It would have tainted the TBE legacy," Mayweather continued.
Of course these things are judgement calls by the referee, and his job is to do what he believes is in the best interest of the fighters when halting a fight. It's easy to second guess things afterwards, saying he stopped the action too soon, but referees are often equally criticized for letting a fight continue for too long -- particularly if it results in an injury. There are no easy answers here, and judging by the latest BLH poll, fans are close to evenly split on whether the fight should've be allowed to continue.
