MANILA, Philippines – Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s controversial knockout victory over Victor Ortiz continues to be the hot topic in boxing circles.

Mayweather knocked out Ortiz in the 4th round of their welterweight bout, maintaining his perfect record and winning the WBC welterweight belt in the process.

But boxers, trainers and writers continue to debate over the bout.

Cowardly act?

In ESPN’s First Take, Skip Bayless and Rob Parker called out Mayweather for his "sucker punch."

“It was the ultimate sucker punch. This was cowardly on the part of Floyd,” Bayless said.

“Ortiz is watching the referee, and Floyd just took advantage of ‘you must protect yourself at all times’ and the spirit of the rule, he just flat out clocks him,” he added.

But Parker is also blaming the referee, Joe Cortez, for losing control of the match.

“The referee didn’t see the first punch, he’s looking away... This is clearly Joe’s fault. He blew this fight,” Parker said.

Jay Crawford, meanwhile, said all 3 people inside the ring were to blame.

“This is one of the situations where all 3 guys were wrong.  All 3 made a mistake. I still think Joe’s wrong for not sending them back. Mayweather, it felt dirty,” Crawford said.

But it was Ortiz who committed the biggest mistake, he added.

“Victor made the biggest mistake because he violated the biggest rule of boxing,” said Crawford.

Doing the right thing

Meanwhile, junior welterweight champion Amir Khan defended Mayweather’s actions.

“You’ve got adrenaline pumping in the body and every fighter, when in the boxing ring, must always defend himself. You are there to fight. What Mayweather did in there was right, in my opinion,” Khan told RingTV.com.

Khan added that Ortiz was already frustrated at not being able to penetrate Mayweather’s defense, and it showed when Ortiz headbutted Mayweather in that pivotal fourth round.

“In a way, I think that’s when Mayweather though, ‘right, this is fight night, and you know what, I am going to teach this kid a lesson,” he said.

Keith Kizer, chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, also told RingTV.com that the fault is with Ortiz.

"So the time keeper heard Joe say 'Time in,' Floyd heard him say 'Time in,' and HBO heard him say 'Time in.' So I'm very skeptical of Victor Ortiz claiming that he did not hear the referee say 'Time in,’” Kizer said.

Question of ethics

Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook said the question is not whether the knockout punch was legal or not.

“The question is more ethical, I guess. Should Floyd have taken advantage of a fighter who was clearly not paying attention?” he said.

Meanwhile, Ryan Maquiñana of BoxingScene.com said the controversy took the shine away from what was a brilliant performance by Mayweather.

“Instead of leaving no doubt by dominating Ortiz without controversy, Floyd opened himself up for criticism and debate from the general public on whether or not what he did was ethical,” he said.

“I felt that Floyd kind of robbed himself a chance to really silence his detractors and show how great he really is inside that ring,” Maquiñana added.