Another horrible stoppage from referee Howard John Foster (Froch vs Groves referee)

[Sparked_26]

He is the perfect ref to stop a journeyman taking a beating.

But there has to be a bit leeway in the big ones.

Groves earned £500,000 for that fight he would have been expecting to overcome a lot of adversity to earn his money. At no point did Froch have a free shot on Groves - not even close.

He was not defenceless and I would have backed Groves to tie Froch up and walk him back. He done it all night long.

[Hougigo]

Swear on me mum, he was going to get seriously hurt

[badnewsbrown]

The ref, the judges, the ring size etc etc was all "incompetence". You better believe this ref and judges will be invited again on Hearn shows. It's this "incompetence" that gets rewarded with more work.

Did anyone see the retweet from foster predicting a 9th round Froch KO on the day?

[Hougigo]

But yea, he's pretty "incompetent"

[Sparked_26]

On the other hand.

This is what happens when you don't end fights early and stray too far the other way. My 85 year old Grandma would have put Macca down on after the first knockdown.

Single worst piece of refereeing in a British ring I can remember.

At least there is no harm done regarding Groves's health. Maccarinelli could have been killed here.

[Hougigo]

The ref, the judges, the ring size etc etc was all "incompetence". You better believe this ref and judges will be invited again on Hearn shows. It's this "incompetence" that gets rewarded with more work.

Did anyone see the retweet from foster predicting a 9th round Froch KO on the day?

Whats his twitter handle?
I can't find it

[Light_Speed]

The fighter who gets stopped, Cello Renda, had home advantage meaning his promoter won the purse bid and was in charge of the event. Foster gave him too many chances and allowed him to get dropped repeatedly before stopping the fight :



Another coincidence?

[New England]

Froch hadn't taken any punishment unlike Groves in the 9th. Stopping it in the first would have been much worse.

And I doubt it's corruption it's simply Howard Foster is a terrible ref and stops fights way too early. He's done it so many times.

while it's true that a stoppage later in a fight is quite different from a first round stoppage, i can't agree with the bold at all. it was quite clear in my eyes that groves was hurt less than froch when he was dropped.

[Light_Speed]

Brook was winning that fight, its not the same situation

Just sheer incompetence.

You actually think the Brook-Jackiewicz fight was corruption? Brook was utterly dominated why would the ref need to jump in? He's just a bad ref and jumps in way too quickly.

He's done it so many times on different promoters shows.

It has nothing to do with who's winning, it's about favoring the A-side fighter. Which means stopping the fight at the first sign that the B-side fighter might be in trouble, or giving the A-side fighter the benefit of the doubt even if he's badly hurt.

It's not just incompetence when you have clear patterns like that.

[Enzo Mc is SHIT]

I doubt it's as direct as money being handed over but it would be no surprise if Howard Foster suddenly found himself not being able to get a job on Matchroom cards if he didn't give Froch an advantage.

That being said, you really need more than 2 examples to conclude that there's a pattern.