Stop the ROBBERY bull****. The Fightwriter has spoken.

[BattlingNelson]

Following last nights controversial decision in the Valuev-Holyfield bout NSB has been over the top with cries of robbery, foul play and worse.

I had Holyfield winning 115-113 so I found it a close fight. Not a robbery as I could understand somebody giving the nod to Valuev.

I just checked the fight report from the great reporter Graham Houston (the fightwriter) and he scored it for Valuev! Mr. Houston is arguably the best boxing reporter in the world. Here's the relevant passages from his report:

"What on earth is all the fuss about? Nikolai Valuev was unimpressive, no argument, and Evander Holyfield showed that at 46 he is still a fighter to be taken seriously, but the decision in Saturday’s heavyweight title fight in Zurich was hardly one of the worst of all time.

This could have been scored for either fighter. It so happened that Valuev got the majority decision. One point on one judge’s card was all that kept this from being a draw. It was that close. The 116-112 score in favour of Valuev by the Italian judge seemed too wide, but I had no quarrel with 115-114 in favour of Valuev by Swedish judge Mikael Hook or the 114-114 score by Guillermo Perez, from Panama. I actually had Valuev winning, 115-113.

The fuss about the scoring, I believe, comes in large part from the TV commentary that had Holyfield winning practically every round.

Then we had the Swiss fans getting right behind Holyfield and cheering every time the great old warrior landed a punch or made an aggressive thrust.

....

The thing is, disputed decisions and refereeing controversies happen everywhere although it helps to be the fighter on home ground.

I hope I don’t sound as if I’m knocking Nick Charles and Al Bernstein, gentlemen who have been watching boxing for many years. Maybe they were completely right about Valuev-Holyfield and I was completely wrong. We see it the way we see it, and it is one of the intriguing things about boxing that two people can watch the same fight and see it differently.

....

And yet, sorry, I can’t go with the tide of condemnation over the Valuev-Holyfield scoring. The decision was debatable, that’s for sure, but in this minority view it was no robbery."

The whole article is here: http://www.fightwriter.com/?q=node/2020

[Steak]

http://boxingscene.com/forums/showth...ight=holyfield

95% of people thought Holyfield won. and most of the people that thought Valuev won were joking or trying to be different.

[BattlingNelson]

http://boxingscene.com/forums/showth...ight=holyfield

95% of people thought Holyfield won. and most of the people that thought Valuev won were joking or trying to be different.

How many of those viewed it on a stream or with yank commentators who got it totally wrong (compared to the officials)?

[Kris Silver]

That says more about boxingscene's membership than it does about the fight.

You can't put more merit on your own view more than hundreds of others. It doesn't work like that.

I'm not saying all NSB posters will have voted with little bias and being reasonable, but such a landslide in a poll cannot be ignored. Were in a democracy after all.

[The Hammer]

http://boxingscene.com/forums/showth...ight=holyfield

95% of people thought Holyfield won. and most of the people that thought Valuev won were joking or trying to be different.

That says more about boxingscene's membership than it does about the fight.

I scored it for Holyfield and voted in that poll, but I could see it was a close fight and could go to either. The only judges' score that surprised me was the 116-112.

[Dan...]

Almost everyone agrees that Holyfield won the fight convincingly. One horrible reporter doesn't change that.

I still don't think there should be any world title fights in continental Europe.

[T-97]

I still haven't seen the fight.

I want to watch it to see what all the fuss is about, but I heard it was pretty boring. Can anyone tell me if it's worth watching it? Or was it that bad?

[The Hammer]

You can't put more merit on your own view more than hundreds of others. It doesn't work like that.

I'm not saying all NSB posters will have voted with little bias and being reasonable, but such a landslide in a poll cannot be ignored. Were in a democracy after all.

Most people who voted in that poll were watching the Bernstein/Charles broadcast, and were perhaps influenced by it.

And some people, including myself, voted Holyfield but thought it was a close fight.

[Hitman932]

How many of those viewed it on a stream or with yank commentators who got it totally wrong (compared to the officials)?

I respect Graham Houston very much and you have to consider that boxing is his livelihood and he is an all around class guy. He isn't going to come out and bash decisions and he isn't going to bad mouth the sport unless it is something cut and dry (like Cortez DQ'ing Soto)

I agree with the points he made, but I will only go so far as to say that Draw was a stretch but can be accepted. A 4 point margin for Valuev is inexcusable, even if Valuev's manager was commentating he couldn't have made you believe Valuev won 8 rounds.

This decision in and of itself may not be something to ***** about but consider the fact that questionable events surrounding German fight cards are slowly becoming the norm.

Consider please,

1. Referee helping Joan Pablo Hernandez to his feet after he was clearly dropped by a right hand by Wayne Braithwaite. Referee then gave Hernandez nearly 20 seconds to recover.

2. Ahmet Ohner ringing the bell to end a round early with his fighter in trouble. Apparently there was no discipline for him for doing that. The referee in that fight also deducted points from the travelling fighter for no reason at all.

3. Now the **** (In my opinion) deicision with Valuev makes 3 highly questionable actions in 3 high profile fights in the past 6 months alone.

[BattlingNelson]

Almost everyone agrees that Holyfield won the fight convincingly. One horrible reporter doesn't change that.

I still don't think there should be any world title fights in continental Europe.

What a silly comment. Houston is perhaps the greatest of fight reporters. Shame on you.