Early in his fight against Hopkins, Winky took a knee and it wasn't counted as a knock-down. Now, I understand that it was after he was on the recieving end of a head butt, but he still voluntarily took a knee. Arturo Gatti did the same in his fight against Floyd Mayweather, as did Chop-Chop Corley against Cotto, both of which were officially ruled as knock-downs. Is it not the ref's duty to halt the bout if he feels a foul was committed, and if so, should that not have been ruled a knock-down for Hopkins? :dunno:
Common sense. Although he did take a knee, discretion by referee should be enforced. That head clash was very nasty and the results were there for all to see. IMO Winky was well within his right to take a knee. Do you think it shouldve been ruled a knock down if Winky immediately went down off the head clash? I hope not. The Mayweather-Gatti situation was completely different if my memory serves me correctly, there was no foul. Mayweather hit Gatti coming off a clinch not broken about by the ref and Gatti whinged and got dropped. Cant remember the Corley-Cotto incident so cannot comment.
My first reaction when it happened was that it should've been called a knockdown. But replays did show that, while Robert Byrd was very slow in getting in between the two, he was in the processing of calling time to signal an "accidental" headbutt. But in response to TKO's post - if Wright got butted and voluntarily took a knee without the ref acknloweding the foul, then yes it should be counted as a knockdown. You don't get the luxury of calling a time out during a round, and that's essentially what Wright did. But you're correct in that the Floyd-Gatti scenario was different - Floyd actually landed a punch before Arturo went down. That was more of a case of "protect yourself at all times." Not sure what he's talking about with Cotto-Corley, as I don't remember Chop taking a knee as the result of a foul. He took a knee to keep Cotto off of him for at least 8 seconds, much as Zab did in either the 8th or 9th round against Cotto after he was unable to see for a moment. A fight I think back to was Benn-McClellan. McClellan got butted in the 9th, and Asaro missed it, along with just about everything else that happened in the fight. McClellan took a knee to collect himself, and many were screaming for a knockdown to be called. Asaro was confused, but instead just ordered McClellan to get up and continue fighting.
i remember jirov knocked down adolpho washington with a headbutt and the dumbass ref ruled it a knockdown.