Octavio Meyran
Octavio Meyran Sanchez is a Mexican former boxing referee.
During his career Meyran took charge of over twenty world title fights. Among the bouts he refereed were the infamous No Más fight between Roberto Durán and Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980, Wilfredo Gómez's WBC Featherweight title-winning effort against Juan Laporte, Gomez's loss in his first defense of that title to Azumah Nelson, and Buster Douglas' upset win over Mike Tyson in 1990. After the latter fight, in an unsuccessful attempt to have the result overturned, Meyran was accused by Tyson's manager Don King of giving Douglas a "slow count",[1] although replays appeared to show that the counts administered to Douglas and Tyson were nearly identical.
The relevance of the nearly identical ten-counts has, however, been questioned, due to the sequence in which these events took place. If Meyran had properly administered his ten-count during Tyson's knockdown of Douglas, there of course would have never been a Mike Tyson knockdown, and therefore no botched ten-count during Douglas' knockdown (knockout) of Tyson. The motivation, if any, behind Meyran allowing Douglas to continue despite Douglas not standing upright while the count had reached 9, was never brought to light, and may very well have not been a factor. However, the facts remain true, and it is unquestionable that the time keeper was between 13 and 14 when James "Buster" Douglas reached his feet, while the referee was between 9 and 10. Allowing a fighter to continue, even though he is not on his feet when your count has reached 9, is still a very questionable and controversial decision in it's own right, since this forced the referee to stretch out the final second, as he cannot justifiably say "ten" and allow the fight to continue.
Because of Mike Tyson's unrivaled dominance during his tenure as Heavyweight Champion, it is largely ignored that, when factoring in these technicalities, he should have won the fight against Douglas. Many boxing fans feel his lack of preparation and chaotic life rendered him unable to continue his reign as Champion.
Notes
- ↑ Anderson, Dave (1990-02-12). "Referee's Count Is What Counts". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-21.