By Keith Idec

New Jersey boxing commissioner Larry Hazzard doesn’t think his fellow regulators in California should change the result of the Timothy Bradley-Jessie Vargas fight to a no-contest.

Vargas and his handlers have urged California State Athletic Commission officials to overturn Bradley’s unanimous-decision victory because confused referee Pat Russell stopped their 12-round welterweight championship match prematurely Saturday night in Carson, Calif. Russell called an end to the bout with approximately five seconds left in the 12th round, with Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs, 1 NC) holding Vargas several seconds after Vargas (26-1, 9 KOs) hurt him with a straight right hand.

The 67-year-old Russell said after the fight ended he thought the sound of the 10-second warning was the final bell, which caused Russell to step in and halt the bout before it should’ve ended.

“Based on all the circumstances, I would not have declared that a no-decision,” said Hazzard, commissioner of New Jersey’s State Athletic Control Board. “I would encourage that a rematch takes place, but I don’t think it would’ve been fair to change the decision.

“Bradley was winning the fight, hands down. I really don’t think Vargas would’ve finished Bradley off. Because if you noticed, Bradley even blocked a few of those punches [after Vargas hurt him] and then he grabbed him and held him. There was about five seconds left and Bradley was already holding him. So he wasn’t going to finish him off. But it was a definite mistake on the part of the referee.”

Hazzard, one of the sport’s most respected referees before becoming New Jersey’s boxing commissioner in 1985, expects Russell’s regrettable error to force commissions throughout the United States to closely analyze the performances of older referees.

“I think that when referees reach a certain age, they should retire,” Hazzard said. “I think that Pat Russell probably should be considering retirement. Referees have fighters’ careers in their hands and these types of mistakes are very detrimental to the fighters. I think that at a certain point in time, referees should retire.

“There are certain jobs – policemen and state troopers, they are forced to retire at a certain age because of the physical impairments that occur at a certain age. It’s just something you can’t help, reaction times and all of the other stuff that goes with aging. This is a clear example of it.”

The 70-year-old Hazzard doesn’t think he would be able to referee fights on a consistent basis these days. He wishes referees either near or over that age would walk away from the ring as well.

“I think it’s somewhat selfish of some of these referees who reach a certain point and refuse to retire,” Hazzard said. “And there’s still a few of them out there. … Certainly, the individual himself will reach a point when he knows he isn’t what he once was. And if you can’t sustain a level of excellence comparable to what you were during your best years, then it’s time for you to step down.

“This is the type of job that demands that you be at your very best at all times. You must be able to operate at the optimum level at all times in this profession, because you have fighters’ lives at stake and you have fighters’ careers at stake. So this is not a profession that allows you to make these types of mistakes. It’s just not fair to the contestants.”

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.