By: Sean Crose
Virgil Ortiz’s return to the ring against Fredrick Lawson on Saturday took a strange turn when referee Tony Weeks abruptly stopped the fight. While it was true that Lawson was taking a beating at the time, he did not appear to be a finished man. Even in a sport where it’s better to stop a fight too early than too late, this one was a little disconcerting. Lawson, after all, didn’t seem to be taking the kind of immense punishment that stopping the fight at that particular moment would require. Needless to say, fans and analysts alike were baffled by the outcome, with a lot of anger directed toward Weeks for supposedly stopping the fight too soon.
“What the public didn’t know,” the veteran referee later wrote in response to harsh criticism, “is that before the fight they did a brain scan on (Lawson), and it turned out he had an aneurysm and they did another test.” and the same aneurysm appeared, they brought another doctor and they did the same test and the aneurysm was negative, so they gave him the go-ahead to fight.” This statement, if true, is certainly a game-changer, as it at least somewhat vindicates Weeks, as well as putting the Nevada State Athletic Commission in the spotlight. Is what Weeks said true? And is there more to the situation than he claims?
“Fredrick Lawson was cleared by a doctor sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to fight Saturday night,” published Golden Boy Promotions, which promoted the fight. “All other questions should be referred to the NSAC.” And in fact, an NSAC source responded to Boxing Insider by simply stating that Lawson was cleared to fight Saturday night. The source also noted that the story involves medical information, something that should not be treated lightly for both legal and ethical reasons. At press time, Boxing Insider is awaiting a follow-up call from the Commission.
While it’s true that Saturday’s fight ended up marred by confusion and controversy, there was no doubt that Ortiz looked good during the short time he fought (after all, things didn’t get past the first round). An effective jab, coupled with powerful punches and an instinct to end things early (though perhaps not as early as they were) made it impossible to deny that Ortiz, 20-0, looked strong against Davis, 30-4. As things stand now, Ortiz hopes to step into the ring with impressive junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu.
