A strange decision by the referee might’ve ended a wild heavyweight bout too early Saturday.
Viktor Faust and Iago Kiladze went down a total of five times in less than two full rounds in the first fight on the all-heavyweight pay-per-view card featuring Luis Ortiz vs. Charles Martin on Saturday in Hollywood, Florida.
Kiladze (27-6-1, 19 KOs) went down the last time, got up on wobbly legs and wanted to continue. However, referee Samuel Burgos didn’t like what he saw in Kiladze and stopped the fight at 1:44 of Round 2.
An enraged Kiladze responded by hitting Burgos with a soft punch, for which he undoubtedly will pay a price.
“What’s wrong with you, man?” Burgos asked Kiladze, which was a reasonable question.
However, his frustration was understandable. He was arguably in no worse shape than Faust (9-0, 7 KOs) in a fight that could’ve been a boon to his career had he won.
Burgos said afterward that he stopped the fight because Kiladze stumbled sideways when he was asked to step toward him, which one could argue.
Still, the stoppage will be debated. And many will have decided that an entertaining brawl came to a premature end.
The fighters went down three times in the first round, Kiladze two times and Faust once. They each went down in the second round.
