Truth be told whether you like the decision Jay Nady made in disqualifying Bernabe Concepcion for hitting Steven Luevano after the bell sounded the end of the seventh round or not, it was a decision that had to be made. What was bothersome however was Nady accusing Concepcion of blatantly and deliberately hitting Luevano after the bell and said to officials and Concepcion’s corner,
“He heard me and he heard the bell because I was right there.”
Concepcion’s corner man Freddie Roach justifiably shot back and questioned Nady,
“How do you know he heard you?!”
Nady then insisted,
“It was wrong! It was simply wrong!”
and when Roach tried to dispute Nady’s accusation that Concepcion maliciously hit Luevano after the bell, Nady yelled at Roach and said,
“Don’t argue with me! Don’t argue with me!!!”
After looking at the replays however, two things were clear. First, the punch was indeed after the bell had sounded. Second, Nady jumped to break both fighters way too late than he should’ve and that Concepcion indeed looked at Nady but not before he threw a punch at Luevano or when the bell sounded as Nady insinuated but only after Nady stepped in which was too late and the punch was already thrown.
Nady failed to do his job as a referee in a timely manner and washed his hands of any blame by saying Concepcion did something that in his words was “simply wrong”. The decision to disqualify Concepcion was fair because whether he intentionally hit Luevano after the bell or not, he still flattened his unsuspecting opponent who appeared and acted at the moment as if he was ran over by a speeding Sarao jeepney and could not continue. Whether Luevano deserves an Oscar or not for the acting job he did in selling that hit or whether he did any acting at all, is a whole different subject. What was not fair though was Nady concluding that Concepcion deliberately did a wrong act.
Perhaps as TV commentators Mario Lopez and Al Bernstein mentioned, Nady forgot he was still refereeing a fight. As the fourth round began Bernstein made the comment,
“It’s a good thing for Jay Nady he’s not paid per clinch because he hasn’t had to break them up I don’t think, maybe once in this fight.”
And Lopez added
“This is the least I’ve had to seen Jay to go in there and work, you’re right. You made a good point”.
After the fight and as translated by Quinito Henson of Philstar.com, Concepcion said,
“The crowd was noisy and it was in the heat of the battle, I didn’t see the referee breaking us up so I thought the fight would continue. I’ll try harder next time.”
This is not the first time Nady has failed to properly officiate a world title-fight. In 2007, ironically also at the end of the seventh round, Marco Antonio Barrera hit Juan Manuel Marquez after Marquez appeared to have been already down. Nady was late to break both fighters up as a result, Barrera tagged Marquez late and was awarded a point deduction by Nady which played a vital role in the outcome of that fight.
Nady was too far from both fighters and too slow on his feet to break them up. Fighters should definitely practice awareness in the ring but at the same time they are taught to not relent until their opponent is down. What if a fighter stops hitting an opponent assuming he was down but he wasn’t and gets tagged by a knockout counter?
It’s the referee’s job to call knockdowns and break fighters up. Granted referees are humans like all of us and are always first to be blamed whenever controversies in fights occur, but just to set the record straight, I simply can’t let Nady get off the hook like that especially knowing how much these fighters invest and sacrifice just to win these fights. Concepcion was starting to regain momentum and was certainly in the fight as the judges’ scorecards revealed after the bout when one out of the three judges had him winning. Hopefully Concepcion gets a rematch as Arum promised.
At the end of the day, Nady made the right decision in disqualifying Concepcion, but made a terrible accusation and the wrong assumption by saying Concepcion punched Luevano on purpose. Sorry Nady, you may not want people to argue with you but as the old adage says, “the tapes don’t lie.”
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