Miguel Flores v. Chris Avalos: Good Fights That End Badly

Under the category of ‘Good Fights That End Badly’ is Tuesday’s boxing FS1 Toe-to-Toe-Tuesday matchup between Miguel Flores and Chris Avalos.  Both boxers acquitted themselves superbly although I would have given Flores the win if they’d gone to the scorecards.  Instead, the referee   ruled Avalos the winner by RTD.

At first I didn’t get what was going on when   ref Bruce McDaniel stopped the fight at a break in the action.  RTD means retired by technical decision.  If you’re wondering how RTD differs from TKO, the latter (TKO) means you were stopped in the ring by the punches of the opponent.  In that case, the ref jumps in and stops one fighter from taking further     punishment.  Those punches you take when you’re out on your feet are the ones that can kill you.  But that wasn’t the case here.

An RTD occurs when a fighter refuses to continue or his corner won’t let him continue. In Flores’ case, he was bleeding from a   cut opened up by an unintentional head butt and a combination of punches.  McDaniel says the cut opened up first from a punch. But even if that were so, a head-butt occurred and made it impossible to continue. If strict rules of interpretation (as in criminal law) were applied, then the head-butt would have been the reason for the stoppage and Flores would have been declared the winner. 

 I don’t think anyone knows which caused the greater damage but everyone (including Avalos) acknowledges the head butt.  If the fight were stopped at that point, and for that reason, I would have gone to the scorecards.  The referee, believing that the cut was opened in an earlier round,  went for the RTD.

By the way, all three judges had Flores winning when the fight was halted.