Comments Thread For: Parker vs. Fury Referee Will Not Change, Says British Board

[Ray*]

Disgraceful, this are one of the times i feel ashamed to be a brit.

[Ray*]

As far as I'm concerned (& I'm English) All International title bouts be it World, European or Commonwealth ETC should have neutral officials.

That's the way i feel too. I would be uncomfortable otherwise. But i hope nothing shady happens, especially now that this has been highlighted by Team Parker.

[Tom Cruise]

I dont mind it being a british ref (how many fights in the US between a yank and a foreigner have an American ref?)

But Terry O'Connor is a bad choice. Bad ref who often favours the home fighter.

[keith_head]

No. Sanctioning body rules never override local rules. The local rules are laws set by the government. Sanctioning body rules are voluntary rules being agreed to by the fighters by their own choice.

Local ref, one local judge and two foreign judges, one of which from the country of the visiting fighter, is a lot better than you'd get in Nevada. Nevada insists on Nevada ref and three Nevada judges.

The Brit policy is far more fair. Nothing shady here at all. This is standard procedure. If the fighters put in the contract that the ring had to be surrounded by alligators, the local government is under no obligation to humor that.

Even if I agreed with you on the point, the reality is they've appointed Terry O'connor, who reffed Hughie's last two fights and is an absolute disgrace of a referee. Go and watch the first Tyson Fury vs John McDermott fight and tell me that he should have a career in boxing. He's a disgrace.

[Liondw]

Perhaps the issue of debate is more that this british ref is incompetent more than that he's british. Was he the one that stopped first Froch-Groves fight too soon? I saw an old fight, Johnny Nelson vs Carl Thompson, and that fight had a ridiculous early stoppage. These things hurt boxing, and the sport remains watched by few people with the bad pay-per-view model.

[Straightener]

As far as I'm concerned (& I'm English) All International title bouts be it World, European or Commonwealth ETC should have neutral officials.

Im with you on that

We get enough grief with our s**t officials

wish it was neutral refs for every fight

[keith_head]

Yeah I wouldn't care if the ref and all three judges were Hughie's mum, his dad and his dog if I thought they were going to be fair - but this guy has a track record of either incompetence or just plain corruption.

There's something really dodgy going on with the british board.

[PunchyPotorff]

Quote:
Originally Posted by PunchyPotorff View Post
Except, don't WBO sanctioning body rules override any local rules? Wouldn't that be the logical way to go? As it stands now, seems to me Brit boxing just stepped into a huge steaming illegitimacy dookie pie for evermore. Just my 37 cents worth.

No. Sanctioning body rules never override local rules. The local rules are laws set by the government. Sanctioning body rules are voluntary rules being agreed to by the fighters by their own choice.

Local ref, one local judge and two foreign judges, one of which from the country of the visiting fighter, is a lot better than you'd get in Nevada. Nevada insists on Nevada ref and three Nevada judges.

The Brit policy is far more fair. Nothing shady here at all. This is standard procedure. If the fighters put in the contract that the ring had to be surrounded by alligators, the local government is under no obligation to humor that.

Why not? Any promoter knows that throwing the fight loser to the alligators is an excellent way to boost attendance. LOL

[TheBigLug]

What's the problem?

If a foreign fighter goes to fight in USA, the referee will usually be American. What's the difference?

[N/A]

don't WBO sanctioning body rules override any local rules?

Why would they? The local rules are set by the government and are the actual enforceable law of the region.

Sanctioning body rules are voluntary rules invented by a company with no actual authority that the fighters have hired to create the illusion that the fight is for some sort of official championship.