Was the ESPN commentary and officiating in Kholmatov-Ford fair tonight?

Like I keep saying and I have to keep saying because no one else will, least of all the ''but it was a close fight it could've gone either way but I did score it for Haney, Clenelo, or Ward etc.'' brigade. When you fight an American in America they stack the deck with a home ref and three home judges so often that it's practically the norm over there. This only happens in the US for world title fights between a home fighter and a foreigner and never anywhere else and if it does it's rarer than sightings of a snow leopard in the Sahara desert because I've looked and looked and kept my eyes peeled and I found nada.

Hence why we see this so goddamn often

Kovalev vs B-Hop in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Kovalev vs Ward I in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Kovalev vs Ward II in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Loma vs GRJ in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Loma vs Teofimo in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Loma vs Haney in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Kambosos vs Teofimo in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Jermello vs Castano I in the US - neutral ref (which is incredibly rare over there) and three US judges

Jermello vs Castano II - ref and all three judges from the US

Josh Taylor vs JCR in the US - ref and all three judges from the US

Now the more observant of you will have noticed that the last three fights weren't just word title fights they were for undisputed. Castano was robbed blind in the first fight and Taylor was arguably robbed of a stoppage win because the ref gave JCR two long counts, one of which when he was out on his feet

And we see this so often everywhere else

Kovalev vs Chilemba in Russia - ref and all three judges from neutral countries

Kovalev vs Yarde in Russia - ref and all three judges from neutral countries

Kovalev vs Cleverly in the UK - Brit ref all three judges from neutral countries

Haney vs Kambosos I in Aus - ref and all three judges from neutral countries

Haney vs Kambosos II in Aus - ref and all three judges from neutral countries

Inoue vs Fulton in Japan - ref and all three judges from neutral countries



I could keep doing this all day but you get the point. But how many world title fights between a home fighter and a foreigner outside of the US can we name where the home fighter had a home ref and three home judges, let alone it being extremely commonplace over there or practically the norm?

Often times over here in the UK for fights between a Brit and a foreigner the officials will come from neutral countries or we'll have a home ref, a home judge, a judge from the visiting fighter's country and one from a neutral country and they aren't even title fights and if it's a European title fight all the officials will often come from neutral countries

Last night was more of the same. The ref and all three judges were from the US one of the whom even inexplicably had Ford ahead and the American commentators were not only beyond biased they were literally pushing Stalinist Russia levels of propaganda all night.