Referee’s mostly get a bad reputation. They let a fight go on for too long, or they end a fight too soon, and no matter what they do there’s going to be people complaining. It’s a tough job. People remember the bad calls, not the good ones. You could get 99 calls perfectly, and make 1 mistake, and guess what people are going to talk about when your name gets brought up? Mark Nelson was assigned reffing duties for this fight that took place over the weekend on NBC. He proved two things.
- It’s a hard knock life for referees.
- The kid can take a punch.
This WBO welterweight bout was contested between Hugo Centeno Jr. and Maciej Sulecki. When the referee was going in to break up the two fighters, it looks like Hugo Centeno Jr. might have been a bit out of it, because he kept swinging and landed a shot directly on the ref’s chin. Either he was a bit dazed, or he just wasn’t looking where he was punching. He didn’t pull back on the first shot at all, but he did slow down the body shot that followed up. The ref ate it like a champ, then smiled about it immediately afterwards.
The look on the other fighter’s face, Sulecki, is priceless after the ref get’s hit. He’s got that “Oh shoot…” expression, just like this:
via screencap
Here’s the referee smiling after taking the punch. He’s like a boxing version of Robbie Lawler, who is notorious for smiling after taking a big shot. Rory MacDonald needs a new opponent after his last fight, ideally someone who isn’t in the top 3 in his division so that he can gain back some confidence after a couple of wars, and this ref might be just the man for the job. Let’s get Dana on the line and make it happen.
He’s like “That was tasty, may I have another service?” (image via screencap)
Here’s the full video of the punch:
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