I don't think there's corruption, just some **** refs and judges who aren't held to account for poor performances. How Ian John-Lewis still gets a gig, I'll never know and Howard Foster was reffing the week after the Froch/Groves stoppage. Joe Cortez has been stumbling around like a degenerate drunk for the past 10 years. There appears to be no quality control.
True Tb,I don't think it's corruption but we do over the past few years have joined most of the rest of the world in the home town decision stakes.We used to be fair to the point of stupidity?
I really don't see the big problem with the stoppage!! Matty done well in the previous round but he put everything into it and Travis came out in the next round and shook him more than once, the right side of his face was badly swollen and his left eye was closing rapidly!! I would rather he didn't take too much punishment because now he can have a rest and come back to have a good career where as letting him continue could have ended his career altogether!!
All this it's better to stop a fight one punch to early rather than one punch to late is wearing a bit thin if you ask me. I mean soon fights will be getting stopped when a punch connects. Honestly boxing will soon be a non contact sport and I wonder if all the fans who want fights stopped sooner rather than later will continue to watch then?
We used to have had some shocking hometown decisions! In my era: Laciar being screwed against Magri; Sugarboy being screwed first time round against Benn, and even in their rematch Malinga won by the split variety... Because of the mass media and Internet things get filmed and exposed, thus it seems worse, but really it is not.
I can see your point and go agree it is better to stop a fight to early rather than to late but some of the stoppages in british rings are way to early . These early stoppages should be used in educating the refs to do a better job
Even though we did have some shocking decisions on most of those occasions the crowd let everyone know who they thought who had really won. The Italians had the worse reputation for robbing the away fighter
I agree it's always better to stop a fight one punch too early than one punch too late. I would add though that that is as long there is a level playing field and there are are no other agendas involved.
I think Al might disagree, and put forward Spain... But yes Italy was pretty notorious, I remember Billy Hardy dropping a decision when one judge scored the bout 120/118... And then Akinwande getting the 'draw' with Schultz. The turning point might very well of been when Joe Cortez stood up to Galvano's corner, to make sure Benn was not screwed out of his title win.
Why do we get such terrible refs in the UK? Because the media, and the BBBofC, and some of the fans, often back them up. "It's better to stop it too early..."
British stoppages are atrocious though. Fighters are barely in trouble and the refs are jumping in and ruining the sport. I for one would not prefer refs jumping in early, they should be jumping in at the RIGHT time. The risk of death is a gamble fighters take everytime they step into the ring and shouldn't be used as an excuse for poor decision making.
The whole issue with British stoppages is not just that fights get stopped prematurely, it's a tool for referees to favor the man they want to win. If you take every single fight from the last 10 years that had a premature stoppage, and then take the % of boxers from overseas or that were the fight's b side that got the advantage of it. I bet you a lot of $$$ that that percentage is incredibly low. British referees are incredibly partial, especially when one of their own is fighting a foreigner. In most cases it has nothing to do with a referee being "overly protective", other then being overly protective of the fighter he wants to win. How many times did we see a fighter in trouble and then directly gets the stoppage when he lands something significant himself? I've heard screams about it when it happened in Germany, but it happens just as regularly on British soil.