"Its just odd, boxing has a rule which is totally ignored. I can't think of anything comparable in other sports."

Well here in Australia in the rugby league there are scrums. The halfback "feeds" (puts the ball into) the scrum. It's meant to go into the tunnel (b/w the two teams) and if it's not fed straight into the tunnel it is a penalty to the other team. At the moment here (and for a long time) they are feeding the ball to the 2nd row and even the lock (right at the back, gives the other team no chance) and the ref's let it go. They have not been told to police it so let it go seemingly to promote a faster game.

I don't see though how holding is promoting anything in boxing, particularly in the flagging heavyweight division. The sports administrators need to step in and instruct the refs to pull fighters up and deduct points. But given the alphabet soup i doubt this will happen.