Jamie Conlan retained his WBO Intercontinental title on Saturday at the National Stadium with a gutsy performance against Mexico’s Junior Granados. Some, however, believe that the ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate should have been stopped by referee Mickey Vann in the seventh round when Conlan was dropped twice by the heavy-handed Mexican.

The reasoning behind these claims stems from the sixty three unanswered punches thrown by Granados between the first and second knockdowns.

Responding to these criticisms in a column for boxingnewsonline.net, Vann outlined why he was correct in letting the fight continue and allowing Conlan to go on and win the thrilling bout.

71 year old Vann noted that  “I received some criticism on the fight I refereed, with suggestion that I should have rescued Jamie Conlan while he was under fire following two knockdowns.”

Despite the volume of Granados’s punches, Vann believes that Conlan was still in control and not in immediate danger of harm, elaborating that “One of the discerners said that Junior threw sixty punches, and that might be true, but I was on top of the action, and if my memory serves me correctly, only three of those punches hit the target as Conlan was swaying up, down, left and right and the rest of the leather that was thrown landed on the arms and gloves.”

Commending Conlan, the veteran ref explained that “If a fighter is hurt, his first reaction is to grab hold of his opponent for all he is worth and try to buy some time. Conlan was focused and saw everything coming, when all is said and done – this is what our sport is about; the noble art of self defence.”