That's not strictly true. Judges have plenty of leeway to score what they think deserves scoring, regardless of what the referee does or doesn't do.
I had the fight 6-6. With Ali`s excessive holding I believe this was a pretty damn good performance by Joe. Ali looked very good in the early rounds. Very fast and his movement was terrific but then Frazier got to him in the middle rounds as usual and was working Ali over pretty well. The holding prevented Joe from working inside like he could`ve. Good fight but not as good as the other two. draw.