THE IMPOSSIBLE JOB
Referee Bob Williams meets erce criticism for honest mistake
JOE MULLENDER is no stranger to emerging from a crisis and getting his arm raised at the end of the fight. No stranger, either, to Bob Williams, who has refereed five of Mullender’s 14 professional fights. In three of those bouts Mullender had survived some hard exchanges to win, and in one – against Ruslan Pojonisevs in 2014 – he rose from a heavy knockdown in the first round to win a hard-fought decision over 10.
On Friday night inside the Royal Albert Hall, Mullender went down hard and early again. Bob Williams again applied the count. But there was no coming back this time. We know that now because Mullender ended up flat on his back, requiring oxygen, after being knocked out by Liam Williams upon rising. We now know the fight should have been stopped after the first knockdown. That is not up for debate and Bob Williams knows that now too. He will have thought about little else since. But he made a call – because he had to make a call – and it was honest and made with the best intentions, during those frantic few seconds before Williams delivered the final, savage blow.
The reputation of a referee can be ruined in a split-second, much like the boxers they’re paid to protect. Bob Williams was visibly troubled in the aftermath, as the horror punch was shown in slow motion to thousands who watched from home. That footage shows the official watching close, closer than anyone, as Mullender follows his instructions, moves towards him and puts his hands up. No towel came in from the corner, there were no screams from Mullender’s team to stop the fight. Because, like Bob Williams, they had seen the Brentwood man come through tough situations before.
Go back to December last year, when Tyson Fury reinvigorated his whole life as he rose from a heavy knockdown administered by Deontay Wilder in the 12th and final round inside the Los Angeles Staples Center. Imagine for a moment, and it’s hard considering what actually transpired, that Wilder then connected with more fierce punches. Punches which sent Fury plummeting into the kind of darkness that all boxing fans dread. Referee Jack Reiss would not now be the highly-regarded referee he is today after allowing Fury to continue following such a brutal knockdown. Not only that, it came at the end of a gruelling fight, when serious injury is at its most likely.
But, of course, in those seconds that followed Fury’s fall and rise, Reiss did exactly what he believed to be the right thing. Yet he could not have known what was going to happen. He simply made a call. Just like Bob Williams made a call. It is only what happened after those calls that defines those decisions and makes them wrong or right. Williams got it wrong, no question. Perhaps he made assumptions about Mullender that he might not have made about other fighters. But however he came to his conclusion, which was assisted by a lifetime’s worth of experience in the sport, he did so with Mullender’s best interests at heart.
By day, Williams – a former boxer who works tirelessly for charities – is a firefighter. He has dragged human beings, some alive, some dead, others somewhere in between, from burning buildings. He makes life and death decisions every day and does not do so flippantly. While it is perfectly acceptable to question his judgement on this occasion, to criticise so poisonously – as plenty did on social media – is thoughtless in the extreme. Referees make mistakes, but they have one of the hardest jobs in the whole sport. One that is scrutinised to such an extent – via numerous replays and then on social media – that the original events, as they happened at the time, lose all context. Williams, like countless others, takes the job exceptionally seriously.
The British Boxing Board of Control take it seriously, too. General Secretary Robert Smith told Boxing News the stoppage will be examined just like all stoppages are examined, but he voiced nothing but support for the referee and the man, and the job he does almost every weekend in British rings. Ultimately, the most stringent judge of Bob Williams will be himself.
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