RUSSEL MORA NAMED REFEREE FOR DONAIRE TITLE DEFENSE AGAINST BEDAK
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 07 Apr 2016
Russell Mora has been named referee for the WBO super bantamweight /junior featherweight title defense of Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire at the sprawling Cebu Sports Center on April 23.
WBO fight supervisor and Asia-Pacific vice president Leon Panoncillo told The Standard that the judges named for the first title defense of Donaire after he won the 122 pound title the second time after beating Mexico Cesar Juarez handily but not before a brutal second half of the fight are Robin Taylor of New York, Hernando Steidel of Puerto Rico and William Leach of Chicago.
One of the more recent fights Mora refereed was the light flyweight clash between Moises Fuentes and Francisco Rodriguez Jr on December 5, 2015.
Mora?s biggest blunder was when he failed to penalize Abner Mares for a series of low blows in a title fight with Joseph Agbeko for which he came under scathing criticism after Mares won a controversial unanimous decision in Las Vegas in August 2011.
Respected boxing writer Lem Satterfield of Ring TV said ?Mora had failed to penalize Mares for repeated low blows ? including for a ruled 11th-round knockdown which replays clearly showed was landed on the cup ? in the first of Mares? two victories over Agbeko in IBF bantamweight bouts.?
Mora later conceded ?I really felt like there was a death. I was very conflicted with what had died, but I knew that I had made a horrible call in the 11th round. When I read the headlines on Mares-Agbeko, I felt bad for them (the fighters) because I screwed up their fight. They were both marred after the fight for my mistake. I still don?t think that I?m completely over it yet.?
Although Mora says he is ?better? for the experience of Mares-Agbeko I, he will ?not forget what that feeling was like ? I felt like I was in mourning.?
He conceded ?That was the worst thing that I have ever done. There?s no reverse, and there?s no instant replay, there?s no taking it back,? said Mora, a Las Vegas-based electrical inspector for Clark County. ?But I did learn a lot, so what I thought was a complete curse actually turned into a blessing.?
Mora has moved on from that bad night and had regained the confidence of promoters, fighters and the sanctioning bodies in boxing although he also had a slip up in the Donaire-Fernando Montiel title fight on February 19, 2011 when Nonito sent Montiel crashing to the canvas in round 2 with Montiel?s legs twitching like those of Ricky Hatton when he suffered a brutal knockout at the hands of Manny Pacquiao, but took a few seconds to realize what had happened before calling the fight off in the 2nd round.
Photo: Referee Russell Mora counts on Fernando Montiel during the Donaire-Montiel fight.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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