“Contender” Ross stops Cora with help from referee!
By Ken Hissner, DoghouseBoxing (Jan 30, 2009)  
Guyana born Troy Ross 19-1 (14) of Canada scored his second consecutive knockout in the latest “The Contender” series in 2:38 of the 1st round over Felix Cora, Jr. 19-3-2 (9) of Galveston, Texas in Singapore to open the shows second round.

This brings the total boxers remaining down to 7 from the original 16. It was more or less a sparring session between southpaws which usually makes for a bad fight, of which this was no exception. Suddenly with the encouragement from his trainer Tommy Brooks, Ross opened up with a combination that sent Cora on the seat of his pants. Up before the count of 8 Cora was motioned to come forward by the referee. He went forward with his arms to his side instead of the normal gloves up and the referee prematurely stopped the fight to the disappointment of the fans and viewers.

With action like this the shows future will certainly be in jeopardy. When viewers spend an hour of their time and see less than 3 minutes of actual boxing it does not make for happy viewers. This past week-end we saw Antonio Margarito get knocked down late in the 8th round. Upon rising fellow Latin referee Raul Caiz wiped off his gloves, motioned him forward and AGAIN wiped off his gloves a second time giving Margarito more time as the bell sounded. This was never mentioned on the air but quite noticeable to this writer.

Ross seemed just as much surprised as Cora with the stoppage. “I was figuring on 5 rounds of tough fighting,” said Ross. In his previous fight Ross stopped Australian Lawrence Tauasa 30-6-1 (17) who was stopped for the first time in his career.

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Ken at: kenhissner@yahoo.com




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