Let's be honest, there are robberies on both sides of the pond, some more blatant than others. And then people complain about the incorrect decisions made by judges or referees (Holyfield-Valuev, John-Juarez, Lewis-Holyfield I, Ottke-Reid, to name a few).
But is the corruption an inherent part of the sport that we all love? I would submit that it is. Because of the nature of the sport, it's impossible to get rid of the corruption (selection of judges, referees, location, sanctioning bodies, etc.).
But can we as the consumers of boxing really do anything about it? We may write an angry post or two in capital letters, occasionally bring it up to defend a point, demand a re-match, but time passes on and we just take it for what it is; we really are more or less powerless when it comes to holding people accountable.
And in the interest of full disclosure, no, I'm not subtly bitching about the outcome of Kessler-Ward. I haven't watched it all yet to make a decision, but from the posts here, Ward beautifully outboxed the European fighter.
I don't know if boxing is corrupt so much as the judges are incompetent. I think judges react too much to what the crowd is doing. I can't think of any other reason Froch got the decision over Dirrell other than the crowd cheering every time Froch missed a punch. It was a one-sided fight in terms of rounds and any judge should have been able to handle that.
I know fans' opinions mean little in the way of decisions, but I also think it's annoying that fans won't admit when their guy got beat. I can't believe people actually claim to have scored that fight for Froch. And I can't believe Scandinavians are actually claiming Kessler was victimized by biased officiating.
I couldn't imagine myself arguing if my guy lost a clear decision, but fans will justify anything because they really think that one guy, be it Kessler or Froch, is their country that night.
Maybe it's just because I'm from the U.S. and we have countless elite fighters at all times. It must be different when you come from someplace with just 2 or 3 good fighters.