Former Nevada boxing judge Chuck Giampa, now a consultant who advises fighters, will provide his occasional analysis of officials when he’s not directly involved in an event. Here’s his take on the Sergio Martinez-Kermit Cintron fight on Saturday in Sunrise, Fla.:

Last week I commented on how one punch can determine a round and one round can determine the fight as it pertains to judging. Last night in Florida this theory was put to the test, but this time it pertained to the referee.

Sergio Martinez fought Kermit Cintron in a co-featured bout. Within the final seconds of Round 7, Martinez knocked down Cintron. Respected referee Frank Santore picked up the count from the timekeeper. While Cintron was down, he argued that the knock down was caused by a head butt as Santore continued the count. At the count of nine, the bell rang. However, the Unified Boxing Rules state that a fighter cannot be saved by the bell in any round including the last round. Santore continued his count after the bell rang, correctly, and brought his count to 10. He then waived off the fighters and indicated the fight was over due to a KO, again correctly.

However, after a delay of more than two minutes, somehow the referee's original determination ending the fight was reversed and the fight was allowed to continue. In the replay of the knockdown, the HBO commentators indicated that Cintron appeared to have had his knee off the canvas at the count of nine. But boxing does not use instant replay. So the referee was correct in ruling the fight was over because he counted Cintron on the canvas at the count of 10. And the referee has the final word.

In the last round, Cintron lowered his head as Martinez was throwing a punch, thus causing Cintron to be hit behind his head (technically a foul). However, if a fighter intentionally lowers his head causing a punch to be delivered to the back of his head, that is a judgement call by the referee. Referee Santore deducted a point from Martinez.

The official scoring: Tom Kaczmarek had it 116-110 for Martinez but Peter Trematerra and Ged O'Connor both scored it 113-113. The fight was declared a majority draw.

So in a fight in which Martinez was originally declared a winner at the end of Round 7 by a knockout, the eventual outcome was scored a majority draw due to the point deduction in the last round. Without that point deduction, Martinez would have been declared a winner by unanimous decision after 12 rounds or the winner after seven rounds by knockout.

Again, the focus and concentration of the judges and referee validate my theory: One punch can determine a round and one round can determine the fight.

Chuck Giampa can be reached at [email protected]