By Keith Idec

Larry Hazzard has seen entirely too many boxing matches that should’ve been stopped sooner, including some bouts in his home state of New Jersey.

That’s what prompted Hazzard, New Jersey’s longtime boxing commissioner, to instruct his state’s referees to take an additional measure during fights to determine whether fighters who’ve been knocked down should continue. In a memo Hazzard sent Tuesday to every referee licensed by New Jersey’s State Athletic Control Board, Hazzard directed them to ask fighters to take “a few steps to the left or right” after knockdowns to better assess balance and whether a fighter should continue.

The current Association of Boxing Commissions standard when determining a boxer’s ability to continue is for fighters to take steps forward, toward the referee, and have them answer “yes” when questioned if he or she wants to continue. Hazzard, a respected referee before becoming NJSACB commissioner for the first time in 1985, consulted his agency’s ringside physicians and agreed that it’ll be beneficial to require fighters to take steps forward and laterally to get a better idea of how hurt a fighter is following a knockdown and a referee’s subsequent count.

The NJSACB’s new standard operating procedure will be first used during New Jersey’s next card, scheduled for May 27 at The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City.

“We’re just hopeful that this becomes a standard thing for referees to do now,” Hazzard told BoxingScene.com. “With all the concern about concussions and brain injuries, I think we have to do more things to make sure that these fighters are protected. Especially in those situations where fighters are in trouble, where they start taking a barrage of punches, those unnecessary blows to the head are what cause brain injuries, concussions and CTE.

“So we have to take steps to protect the health and safety of these fighters. The protocol that referees are using now to determine whether fights should continue is not quite as effective as it should be. Asking a fighter to walk straight to you, in a straight line, is not really a good indicator of whether he is still fit to continue because that is a learned response. I think that the level of questioning has to be elevated slightly, so that it’ll give you a better picture of whether a fighter should continue.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.