Referee Tony Weeks reveals shocking reason for his early stoppage in Ortiz-Lawson fight

Tony Weeks has responded to the criticism he faced for his stoppage in the Vergil Ortiz Jr.-Fredrick Lawson boxing fight on the weekend.

Ortiz Jr. improved to 20-0 with a first-round TKO over Lawson, but many fans were angry at the stoppage. Weeks appeared to stop the fight early and after the fight, DAZN’s Beto Duran said Weeks told him he saw Lawson’s eyes roll back which is why he stopped it.

Now, however, Tony Weeks took to his FaceBook in a now-deleted post claiming Lawson entered the fight with a brain issue so he stopped it early to protect the fighter.

Tony Weeks just shared this on his Facebook account pic.twitter.com/ViLAJVOFr5

— Dan Canobbio (@DanCanobbio) January 8, 2024

“What the public didn’t know that prior to the fight they did a brain scan on him, and it came up that he had an aneurysm, and they did a test again and the same aneurysm came up. Another doctor was brought in and gave him the same examination and he tested negative for the aneurysm, so they cleared him to fight,” Weeks wrote.

It was a shocking claim from Tony Weeks as if the ref is telling the truth, why Frederick Lawson was even able to compete with an aneurysm is a major question. If that was the case, there was a chance for serious injury or even death, which played a role in Weeks deciding to stop the fight.

Weeks’ comments caught the attention of Golden Boy Promotions, who was promoting the event, and they claimed Lawson was cleared by Nevada.

“Fredrick Lawson was cleared by a Nevada State Athletic Commission-sanctioned doctor to fight on Saturday night,” Golden Boy said in a distributed two-sentence press release. “All other questions should be referred to NSAC [Nevada State Athletic Commission].”

This is not the first time Tony Weeks has been under fire for his stoppages. Last year, Weeks stopped the Rolly Romero-Ismael Barroso WBA junior welterweight title fight early.

Barroso was winning the fight and looked like he was on his way to an upset. However, Tony Weeks ruled a questionable knockdown in the ninth round and then stopped the fight.

After the result, Tony Weeks did an interview with NYFights.com and claimed Barroso being up in there in age played a role in his decision to stop the fight.

“What was in my mind was, a 40 year old fighter, in a young man’s game,” Tony Weeks told NY Fights. “Any official will tell you, you get a fight, and a fighter is at an advanced age, you’re going to look at him a little harder than the other fighter… Barroso was definitely on a short leash, Romero landed, it prompted me to stop the fight. In boxing, all it takes is one punch.”

As of right now, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has yet to comment on Tony Weeks’ deleted post and whether or not they will is to be seen.