Golden Boy Promotions officially responds to Tony Weeks' "aneurysm" claim defending early stoppage in Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Fredrick Lawson

Boxing referee Tony Weeks has released a statement defending his controversial early stoppage of the bout between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Fredrick Lawson.

This past weekend, Ortiz Jr. faced off against Lawson in a welterweight bout. After a back-and-forth opening two minutes, Ortiz Jr. got the upper hand and cornered Lawson, unloading a flurry of strikes on his opponent, who was covering up.

Suddenly, the referee stepped in and waved the bout over despite the fact Lawson was still intelligently defending himself. The TKO victory for Ortiz Jr extended his record to 20-0, but the result has drawn major criticism as many believe Weeks called the fight far too early.

Following the fight and the subsequent backlash, Weeks took to social media to defend his decision.

According to the ref, he stopped the bout due to Lawson's pre-fight brain scans, two of which showed he had a potential aneurysm. Weeks wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post:

"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." [h/t Michael Benson]

Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions has since responded to Weeks' claim, insisting that Lawson was cleared to fight by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).

Check out Tony Weeks' full statement and Golden Boy's response here:

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Fans react to Tony Weeks' early stoppage of Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Fredrick Lawson

Priot to Tony Weeks' statement about his controversial decision to stop the fight between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Fredrick Lawson, fans couldn't help but feel that they'd seen this before.

Weeks has previously been underfire on more than one occasion for calling a fight early, with many noting his performance during Roland Romero's super-lightweight title bout against Ismael Barroso.

The referee controversially waved the bout off in the ninth round, handing a TKO victory in favor of Romero. Barroso was up on all three judges' scorecards at the time.

Reacting to Weeks' latest controversial stoppage, one fan wrote:

"Without the fans, you won’t have any boxing…. Terrible stoppage. If it was an 11th round that’s one thing and the first or second round. Are you kidding me I’d want a refund."

Another user added:

"Reff had a bet to cover"

One fan even claimed it was the worst stoppage they had ever witnessed:

"That could be the worst stoppage I’ve ever seen"

Check out more reactions here:

Fan reactions to Tony Weeks' stoppage