Referee Roger Barnor has stressed that he was right in stopping the fight between Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe vs. Argentina’s Fernando David Saucedo in round 10 last Saturday night at the Bukom Boxing Arena.
The Ghanaian referee has heavily been criticised for calling off the bout, as many believed Tagoe landed illegal blows.
According to Barnor, at the time of counting for Saucedo after going down, he saw Saucedo’s trainer climbing into the ring and that forced him to waved off the fight infavour of Tagoe.
Barnor explained that he could have easily disqualified Saucedo before round 10 as the Argentine went against most of the rules.
“The fight was one of the most difficult fights i have officiated but actually that also strengthens you in the game of boxing or probably the job you decided to do. It was quite hectic though,” he said.
“These South Americans everything that they get involved they try to intimidate the opponent, the man in charge, maybe probably the referee, so once you succumb to their antics then they will override you and do what they want to do but if you don’t give them the chance they will find an excuse maybe trying to do something that people will say they are being cheated.”
“In the fight Emmanuel Tagoe never hit him illegally, he [Saucedo] gave Emmanuel Tagoe the chance to hit him. If you turn your back intentionally towards your opponent, what do you expect him to do?, you are warn never to turn your back. You don’t have to turn your back in the course of the fight, so once you turn your back then it seems you yourself are not being fair to your opponent. It seems he was trying to take advantage of his opponent by using some antics. Because i didn’t allow him he taught he is being cheated and he was trying to play smart but i was too big for his antics. I should have taken my decision earlier if i had wanted to be firm, i could have easily disqualified him before the 10th round. I can give some few instances, one, you are not allowed to spit your gum shield, he did that many times but i overlooked it. In the game of sports the referee is immune to be touched, you are not allowed to touch the referee let alone push or punch the referee which he did but i overlooked it because i just want the fight to continue.
“What happened at the 10th round was very bad because from all indications he got two quality punches around his cheek not at the back of his head as he claimed. So he deliberately relaxed on the ropes and Emmanuel Tagoe was in motion trying to end the fight there because he was trying to get advantage of the earlier two qualities blow he gave that took a toll on Saucedo and me getting there late just to stop the fight because once he turned his back and lied on the ropes it an indication that he has abandoned the fight. But for me again as i wanted the fight to continue Emmanuel Tagoe unintentionally hit him at the back so i have to do what i have to do as a referee by counting him for him going down and probably lying on the ropes and after counting i will call a time out and i will go over to Emmanuel Tagoe and caution him for hitting the back of Saucedo even though he shouldn’t have turned his back towards him. In the course of the counting we could all see that Saucedo’s chief second or the trainer just climbed into the ring, and for the trainer to climbed into the ring indicate to me as per the rules of the game that my boy has had enough, i don’t want him to continue again and that prompted me to halt the game not because of Saucedo but his trainer got into the ring. So i stopped the fight because Saucedo’s trainer got into the ring so i was right in taking that decision.”
Last Saturday’s fight was Tagoe’s first defense of his IBO lightweight belt.