I don't believe these stoppages are due to an abundance of caution from the 'safety first' mindset of a region. I see this as a region wide form of collusion in which the home fighter both benefits from early stoppages and is afforded far more leeway when taking a flurry of punches. I've seen fighters from a certain region be beaten to an inch of their life by an away fighter and given every chance to recover and get the win. These same fighters can then flurry their opponent on the ropes after mildly stunning them and walk away with a TKO win. I'm sure many posters here can think of great examples of this. Josh Warrington was allowed to almost die against Lara - would Lara have been allowed to go out on his shield similarly? Kovalev beat the hell out of volume puncher Cleverly in front of regional premature stoppage expert Calzaghe. Can you imagine how quickly that fight is stopped if Cleverly hurts a random travelling Russian and follows up with a flurry? I'm tired of comments sections filled with casual viewers saying "Well, do you want them to die in there? He was done!". If that's the case, let's be consistent. Are there ANY "regional premature stoppages" you've seen of the hometown A-side guy stopped by a flurry of punches while showing some form of defense and awareness? Probably quite rare. Interestingly, if it's two unknown guys having a tear up they're allowed to fight to a natural conclusion. Let's stop calling it safety first and start calling it corruption.
So I agree, but I think we really should do a deep dive on the refs because I tend to think it's not region but more referees with...... preferences.
I was gonna mention Cleverly vs Kovalev. Not because it was a premature home stoppage but because it was one of the most blatant examples of corrupt refereeing you’ll ever see. Terry o Connor literally carried Cleverly back to his corner at one point lol
I've learned something. I actually thought 'british stoppage' was the term for a referee ending the fight because he wants the home fighter to benefit. I didn't know it was used to allude to a generally more cautious refereeing policy in britain.
British refs have been more cautious than most since the 90's / early 2000's after some high profile tragic events in the ring. However, the blatant corruption and favouritism has gotten much worse in more recent times.
