Berto's Holding

How was Berto allowed to continuously hold and clench against Ortiz for the entire fight, without the referee's deducting at the very least a point?

I can't see how anyone could say Berto's wasn't excessively holding and the fear of this was raised by Ortiz's camp prior to the fight and said they would be speaking to the ref about it but the ref did nothing.

Yeah, he broke them up often and fairly quickly but was quite happy for Berto to do it numerous time for every round and I only recall the ref on once saying to Berto "you're holding"!

Ortiz got deducted a point for repeated blows to the back of the head but not helped by Berto, plus he gave Berto ample time after the point deduction.

Also, the ref robbed (in my eyes) a legitimate knockdown in the 1st round!

A brilliant fight but for me it was slightly spoiled by Berto and the ref seemed quite happy to allow Berto a break where possible.

Valero's Conscience wrote:How was Berto allowed to continuously hold and clench against Ortiz for the entire fight, without the referee's deducting at the very least a point?

It's obviously not emphasised enough to the ref's that it's against the rules. Not only is it bad to watch, you are robbing the other guy of advantages he has gained either by hurting you or getting inside.

He should of been deducted a point to be fair,Berto was tired and just wanted to quit.He was holding so Ortiz couldn't hit him on the inside which Ortiz was doing in the early rounds of the fight.

Cracking fight though.

I thought the ref was pretty quick to break them up to be fair. Ortiz was burrowing into Berto, often with the head alot so Berto didnt have much option but to hold at times.