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Joe Cortez
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Joe Cortez (born 1945 in New York, New York) is a Puerto Rican boxing referee who has worked many important world title bouts.
ez moved to Puerto Rico during his childhood. Living there, he became fluent in Spanish. Cortez had a good amateur boxing career, winning various Golden Gloves tournaments from 1960 to 1962. In 1963, at the minimum age of eighteen, he jumped into the professional boxing ranks.
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Encyclopedia
Joe Cortez (born 1945 in New York, New York) is a Puerto Rican boxing referee who has worked many important world title bouts.
Biography
Cortez moved to Puerto Rico during his childhood. Living there, he became fluent in Spanish. Cortez had a good amateur boxing career, winning various Golden Gloves tournaments from 1960 to 1962. In 1963, at the minimum age of eighteen, he jumped into the professional boxing ranks. Cortez had a record of eighteen wins and one defeat as a professional boxer. Unable to secure a world title shot, however, he retired from boxing after only nineteen professional fights.
Beginning in the early 1970s, Cortez started working as a referee. During the 1980s, he took on the responsibility to referee some important, but not big, fights.
As eminent referees Richard Steele and Mills Lane retired at the dawn of the 21st century, Cortez became one of Nevada and New York's preferred boxing referees for world title fights. He has refereed over 170 world title bouts, among which figure the first Oscar de la Hoya-Julio César Chávez meeting, and the match that saw 45-year-old George Foreman become the oldest World Heavyweight Champion in history. Asked by Telemundo personnel to give a prediction about the first de la Hoya-Chávez meeting prior to the fight taking place, he simply answered "I can't make any predictions", as referees are not allowed to do that before a fight (doing so might indicate favoritism towards one of the combatants).
Cortez still referees major boxing events, and his catchphrase during pre-fight instructions, "(I am) fair but firm!" (also said as "I'm fair but I'm firm!") is now a copyrighted trademark. Cortez also gives children boxing instructions and has a website "fairbutfirm" that he teaches on how to become a referee.The only school for referees.
He also appears in the film Rocky Balboa as the referee in the exhibition bout between Balboa and the fictional champion Mason "The Line" Dixon played by the professional boxer Antonio Tarver.
Mayweather-Hatton controversy
Cortez has received criticism from fans of Ricky Hatton and boxing experts for his handling of Undefeated, the bout between Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Jr on December 8, 2007. Jim Watt, a former Scottish boxer, has publicly attacked Joe Cortez for his "deplorable" performance. The thought is that Cortez was overly intrusive, and when the fighters were in close, he was breaking up the action too quickly and did not wait to see if the fighters were actually going to throw a punch or not; a scenario that would have suited Ricky Hatton. Cortez deducted Hatton a point in round 6 - the first of his professional career - for hitting on the back of the head. Some complain that Cortez failed to see Mayweather ducking and almost trying to lever himself through the ropes. Hatton responded by turning his back on Floyd on the resumption.The suspicions of bias from English supporters was apparent, with sections of the crowd chanting "The referee's a wanker" throughout some of the rounds. Their ill-feeling towards Cortez was further exacerbated by Cortez posing for photos with Mayweather just moments after the fight.
Cortez states that those criticizing him were primarily British loyalists. He further claims that his actions were justified in that Hatton's "hit and hold" technique and "rabbit punching" is illegal, although it is widely regarded amongst boxing communities that Floyd's illegal use of the elbow and ducking below the waistline throughout the fight was ignored.
Joe Cortez also refereed the Bernard Hopkins versus Joe Calzaghe fight, where he reversed his refereeing style to allow the American to use the same 'hit and hold' technique (as Hatton in the Undefeated fight) for virtually the whole fight. Hopkins was also allowed to lead with the head on several occasions with absolutely no reprimand and was given a 5 minute break during the fight for a supposed low blow by Calzaghe.
Soto-Lorenzo controversy
Cortez came under criticism for disqualifying Humberto Soto in his fight against Francisco Lorenzo at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 28, 2008. Soto took control from the outset and was hurting Lorenzo with a steady stream of hard blows. In the fourth round, Lorenzo was bleeding from his nose, had gone down from a left uppercut and was being dominated. After the knockdown, Lorenzo was trying to grab Soto but Soto continued to land punches, causing Lorenzo to take a knee. Instead of ruling Lorenzo down, Cortez indicated that Soto had hit him while he was down. Replays indicated that Soto threw a punch that just grazed Lorenzo's head. While Soto was sent to a neutral corner, Lorenzo lay bleeding on the canvas with the doctor looking at him. Cortez conferred with Nevada commission executive director Keith Kizer and other commission officials. After several minutes, Cortez called off the fight and Lorenzo was given the victory. Graham Houston of Fight Writer wrote, "This must rank as one of the worst pieces of refereeing in boxing history." Mark DeSisto of Boxing Scene wrote, "This was a decision that was simply unjust and it's probably time for the aging Cortez to think about retirement."
WBC president Jose Sulaiman condemned the decision as a "gross injustice" and one of the biggest he has seen in a long time. The WBC refused to award Lorenzo the title and also announced that the WBC board of governors will vote on whether to declare the fight a no contest or to declare Soto the winner by knockout.
See also
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