Boxing Controversy And Corruption:

Steve Forbes vs Demetrius Hopkins

By Pj De Best

The sport of boxing is often noted as a sport of uncertainty and controversy. Weird things can happen within the ropes and even weirder things seem to happen outside of them. Some of the biggest low blows that boxing has witnessed have been delivered by the ringside officials that are supposed to be representing the sport with professionalism, fair play and an unbiased view when officiating a bout.

Take the Stevie Forbes vs Demetrius Hopkins bout for example; in what appeared to be a convincing and clear cut victory to Forbes, the ringside officials unbelievably robbed him by awarding the bout to Hopkins who was a fighter that was promoted by Goldenboy Promotions as well as being the nephew of boxing legend Bernard Hopkins, a partner of Goldenboy Promotions. Considering that the event was staged by Goldenboy Promotions, it would be fair to speculate that a biased ruling at best, or total fight corruption at worst, was used by the officials. Nepotism was present during that bout.

Boxing is not a transparent sport by any means; it would be of complete ignorance not to accept the fact that the majority of fight officials are often courted by big-time promoters and managers. That’s not to say that all fight officials are in the pocket of promoters, but there definitely is an element of influence there.

Why would a ring official wish to do anything that could jeopardize any future assignments from particular promoters? The majority would desire to do the right thing but the threat of losing future work by not showing favoritism to certain fighters is a real threat to their incomes. The return airfares, hotel suites and easy paycheck for doing a job that they love would be hard to give up, even if it means going against the principles of fairness.

Should promoters choose the ring officials? or should the State Athletic Commissions choose them? And are the governing boxing commissions/organizations/federations providing the most qualified guys for the job or are they providing the most user friendly guys? You tell me…

Politics continue to play a major role in the development of a bout. Unfortunately for the sport of boxing and its fans, corruption will be around for a long time unless a new code of conduct and a new process of choosing ring officials is introduced. Boxing is lucky to have such a loyal fan base that continue to put up with garbage decisions and clear corruption. Remember that without the fans, we have no sport!!!

5 Bad Decisions That Come To Mind:

Forbes vs Hopkins
Leonard vs Hearns II
Holyfield vs Lewis I
De La Hoya vs Sturm
Fenech vs Nelson 1

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Posted by Pj De Best on Jan 31 2009 Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry