I was appauled and shocked at the pathetic performance and lack of respect for the rules and regulations for the sport of boxing last Sunday night as I watched one of the most blatant displays of mismanaged referring I have ever witnessed!
As I watched the Spinks/Mayorga Title fight, I was dumbfounded by all the favoritism that Cory Spinks got not only from the announcers and Roy Jones Jr., but by veteran referee Tony Orlando!
Of course when you looked across the ring and throught the ropes you saw Micheal and Leon Spinks, their family and friends, Mike Tyson and, who else, Don King and it all made sense then!
I used to have respect for Tony Orlando as a ref, but now if I ever see him I'm asking him how much he made on that fight! He protected Cory Spinks as if it was his own son out there. Everytime the fighters would come too close together Orlando would 'break' them up. There was nothing to break up! There was the poor attempt of Spinks trying to tie Mayorga up by holding but he was doing so bad of a job of it Orlando had to separate them because Spinks was getting hurt. Excuse me, but is a ref suppose to stop the action on the assumtion that a fighter MIGHT get hurt? It's suppose to be BOXING for crying out loud!
The numerous times Spinks held on to Mayorga was completely ignored by Orlando. In the third round the action got heated up at the end and Spinks hit Mayorga after the bell, who gets a warning? - MAYORGA! The fourth round ends pretty much the same, but this time Mayorga gets a point taken away for hitting after the bell. Mayorga got a point taken away for holding behind the neck in a later round while not even a warning was ever extended to Spinks for holding the many times he did. Most obnoctious of all was Orlando protecting and helping Spinks to his feet after Mayorga knocked him down and had him hurt! Of course that was 'just a slip' and Orlando picked his 'boy' up and quickly dismissed it to the judges -(if you can call them that) Oddly enough this happens TWO MORE TIMES!!!
Is no one investigating this?
Very peeved, Darrell Ashley

There might a lot of corruption in boxing, however it's not the referees you should be worried about, its the promoters. I am not sure how familar you are with boxing but I have grown up around boxing my entire life and have see plenty of fights, and as a matter of fact, I have seen every fight Tony Orlando has ever refereed and not once has it ever seemed that he favored one fighter over another. The goal is to break up the boxers as they start to drag their feet and hug each other for 12 rounds! Keep them boxing. Spinks fought the smart fight that's why he won. Believe me if Tony Orlando received any money from that fight, I would know!