Eddie Hearn weighs in on the controversial Rose stoppage

By James Sexton - 02/17/2015 - Comments

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Eddie Hearn, the promoter for Matchroom Sports had an interview with IFL TV this Monday after the 1st round stoppage of former world title challenger Brian Rose. Rose stepped in with journeyman Carson Jones who has been remembered after 2 losses to IBF champion Kell Brook. After an awfully bad start for Jones, which saw him rocked, and hurt early, he then would come back and win by TKO in the same round. Rose was certainly hurt in the fight, but the stoppage was controversial as he was not given a chance to fight back or prove that he was in position to survive the round and come out again for the second. Usually you see experienced fighters like Rose given a moment to see where they are at before the referee jumps in.

Eddie Hearn said that he felt it was a bad stoppage on the night and upon reviewing the footage came to the decision that it was a terribly bad mess up by the referee. Obviously as the promoter for the fighter he has to side with his fighter at this stage so its obvious he was going to say this, but at this point you have to see truth in what he was saying. ‘twenty seconds more and he may have been knocked out or knocked down… but it was definitely stopped too early.’

Hearn also said that he did not like the concept of standing eight counts in boxing as it breaks up the action and makes for bad viewing for the fans. He also did not think taking a knee could have been possible for Rose in this situation as he may not have been thinking logically after being hit flush and then continually clipped by punches. It must have been a very strange situation for Rose at the time, because when he fought Demetrius Andrade he took hellish punishment throughout the fight, yet in this case it was stopped almost as soon as it started and he probably thought to himself that taking a knee was not necessary so early on.