Foster predicted on facebook that Froch would win in the 9th round!!

[erics44]

It does Look dodgy abit now iv watched it back , good link ,,, also looks dodgy when froch says " I had a job to do tonight and so did the referee" in the interveiw

ha, are you on acid?

[Colinc]

Lol painkillers n beer , its not quite LSD but it probly messes with ur head a bit

[Fenster]

I'm sure all you lunatics are right and it's deffo dodgy.

However, all I see is Foster putting his ear to Froch's mouth so he can hear his responce - to which I assume was "are you OK?" Rob McCracken does the same exact same thing 20 seconds later when Froch sits down in the corner. There's 20,000 people screaming.

By the way - Adam Booth never did end up in Groves corner.

[ross]

I'm sure all you lunatics are right and it's deffo dodgy.

However, all I see is Foster putting his ear to Froch's mouth so he can hear his responce - to which I assume was "are you OK?" Rob McCracken does the same exact same thing 20 seconds later when Froch sits down in the corner. There's 20,000 people screaming.

By the way - Adam Booth never did end up in Groves corner.

Yes but the reason it looks odd is that the refs job is to see if the fighters ok and that he can respond properly to the refs instructions. If the refs has asked him "are you ok" what does that tell you that the ref had to put his ear to Frochs mouth? Why couldnt Froch nod like other fighters do if its in a loud atmosphere?

[Fenster]

Foster is looking in his eyes whilst doing the count. He asks him "are you alright?" He split second turns his ear to Froch's mouth. Froch's lips are clearly moving which means he was answering the question - "Yes I'm alright"

Is it not common for a ref to ask that?

Mountains out of molehills. But that's just me. You conspiracy merchants are always on the ball.

[erics44]

Foster is looking in his eyes whilst doing the count. He asks him "are you alright?" He split second turns his ear to Froch's mouth. Froch's lips are clearly moving which means he was answering the question - "Yes I'm alright"

Is it not common for a ref to ask that?

Mountains out of molehills. But that's just me. You conspiracy merchants are always on the ball.

cummon fenster, foster is definately not doing the normal thing

he is asking him if he needs more time, or if he wants him to end the round early or something

if you look in his hands i think he actually passes him some steroids

[Colinc]

The dodgy thing here really is the stoppage in round 9 and the Facebook prediction/like by the ref.. It's very unprofessional and a silly thing thing to do. It can show he wasnt impartial and makes a bad decistion look premeditated, but it's the bookies who get hit the hardest in corruption and they usually catch on with suspicious betting pattons pretty shapish

[Fenster]

The dodgy thing here really is the stoppage in round 9 and the Facebook prediction/like by the ref.. It's very unprofessional and a silly thing thing to do. It can show he wasnt impartial and makes a bad decistion look premeditated, but it's the bookies who get hit the hardest in corruption and they usually catch on with suspicious betting pattons pretty shapish

I don't think anything dodgy happened but I agree that an official giving an opinion before a fight they're involved in is stupidly naive and unprofessional.

[ross]

The dodgy thing here really is the stoppage in round 9 and the Facebook prediction/like by the ref.. It's very unprofessional and a silly thing thing to do. It can show he wasnt impartial and makes a bad decistion look premeditated, but it's the bookies who get hit the hardest in corruption and they usually catch on with suspicious betting pattons pretty shapish

I don't think anything dodgy happened but I agree that an official giving an opinion before a fight they're involved in is stupidly naive and unprofessional.

Yep, same as judges, have to be impartial.

Just like how they rotated refs for Hattons WBU title defences so it didn't look dodgy.....

[Kirkland Laing]

Foster isn't crooked but he isn't entirely straight.

Here's what happens when you want to be a ref. If the BBBC stewards like you at your interview and think you're competent and know boxing and the rules well enough, they'll give you a gig on the undercard of some tiny show somewhere. You progess from there and the incompetent refs are weeded out well before they get to a decent level.

You work your way up through the system and get to know the BBBC setup and the stewards who run it. Frank Warren says it's like a big social club and basically run by a handful of guys that all stick together. If these guys like you you'll eventually get to top reffing gigs. But what these guys like most of all is the gravy train, such as it is, to continue. They need guys like Froch to carry boxing in Britain.

That's why you've seen the Burns joke decision, Bellew getting a gift against Chilemba, the nine count, Cleverley out on his feet and getting carried back to his corner at the end of round two against Kovalev by the fucking ref and those are all just recently. It's why a desperate Froch could get away with repeated forearm smashes and why the ref dived in and headlocked Groves instead of grabbing Froch.

One of these every now and then is acceptable but when you get a bunch of them all at once, including that fucking abortion of a stoppage at the weekend, it starts to fucking stink seriously.

Judging is something else. Definitely a bit of corruption goes on there. Universum got caught upgrading judges to five start suites, giving them a wad of cash for "expenses" and sending commercial ladies to their rooms before fights back in the late eighties. Somepermutation of those things probably happens on every major card now. That's why judges come up with ridiculous scorecards. They just want to keep the promoter happy which keeps their sanctioning body happy. Most of them probably don't need a bung, they're just happy getting their expenses covered and a ringside seat/bit of notoriety every weekend.

[Kirkland Laing]

Scrap knows a lot about his I'm sure and is in this thread now. Come on Scrap.

[smashup]

Id love to hear Howards thoughts on Froch v Groves and everything you have listed that seems very dodgy ;-)
And lets not fuck around here , in the UK alone there have been shockers lately ... one after another.

[Kirkland Laing]

The rationale that we got from Foster and the head guy from the BBBC was that it's better that Groves took one punch too few than one punch too many. So how come that didn't apply a few weeks ago during Cleverly versus Kovalev when the ref carried Cleverley back to his own corner?

The worst thing was that if Groves had made it through to the end he would have been robbed on the cards anyway.

[Fenster]

Kovalev should have been disqualified against Cleverly for whacking him twice when he was on the deck. Joe Cortez wouldn't have stood for that. Ask Humberto Soto.

Bellew didn't get a gift against Chilemba. Burns-Beltran was about judges. Shock! The nine count was explained by the BBBofC rules.

When exactly did boxing not have controversy every single week? Before we couldn't witness virtually every fight this stuff only happened in Germany (). You need a knockout to get a draw in Italy.

[smashup]

When you really think about it Boxing is so so easy to fix,
More so than loads of other high profile sports.
A ref can play god and with one wave of his hands determine the winner or be told to heavily favour one fighter.
Its so easy in Boxing to stack the odds heavily against one fighter and leave him in a position where he has to get a KO to win.
We know Germany is bad for it and have seen loads of shocking decisions.
Amazes me that some people think I can't, won't or doesn't happy here in the UK.
Just look at some of the decisions in the UK this year for proof , its not fuckiñg rocket science people