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.
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[edit] 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, the infamous first fight between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis 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 first and 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.
[edit] Undefeated
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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 where in close, he was breaking up the action too quick 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. This has lead many to question Joe Cortez's credability as a world title referee, due to his constant favouritism towards boxers of his own nationality.
