Spotlight On Judging And Refereeing At British And Commonwealth Title Fights

The subject of poor refereeing and suspect decisions when Irish boxers are involved in British and Commonwealth title fights has become very controversial over the past month or so.
The recent antics of referee Dave Parris during the May 15th fight between Ireland's Martin Rogan and Englishman Sam Sexton, have brought to a lot of peoples attention the obvious bending of or sheer ignorance of the rules by some referees in such fights.

If the Rogan V Sexton calamity was not enough reason to believe that there is something off about proceedings in these fights, let's take a look at the case of Belfast's super featherweight and stablemate of Rogan, Kevin O' Hara, who was last night expressing his frustration at the judges scoring of his Commonwealth title challenge against Scotland's Ricky Burns.
Burns won the fight in my opinion but only by 1 or 2 rounds at best. During the fight O' Hara was deducted a point for dangerous use of the head which was a bit extreme, especially as Burns himself was leaning in with his head which was not even admonished by the referee. Burns was also holding way too much during the fight which again, was ignored.

However, it was not so much the referee's performance in this fight which comes under scrutiny but more the judges scoring of the fight. In a bout where most rounds were very close - and with most people at ringside, and even the commentators believing that Burns had just shaded it by 1 or maybe 2 rounds, with some of the opinion that O' Hara had actually done enough to win the title - the three judges, Howard John Foster, Victor Loughlin, and of course, Dave Parris, respectively scored the fight : 113-115, 111-116, and 110-117!

It is occurrences like these which discredit the very titles themselves. A few questions I would like to ask the BBBof C - how can anybody take these fights seriously? How can anyone look at a boxer such as Sam Sexton and see him as a credible Commonwealth champion considering how he came about the title? And more importantly, when are we going to see some consistency and impartiality in these fights?

These questions lead me to do a little research on the subject. Looking back through the records from the last 20 years or so, it is clear to see that when an Irishman challenges for a British or Commonwealth title, there is only one way the British boxer loses, and that is by stoppage.
I struggled to find one example where an Irish boy won a points decision in one of these fights ( and this is NOT a testament to the British boxers superior skills!).
So basically every time an Irish boxer has won one of these titles since 1986 (I'm sure there are many more examples before this time frame) they needed a KO to do it!

Examples include :

British Title

1986 - Dave Boy McCauley wins by TKO over Joe Kelly

2001 - Neil Sinclair wins by TKO over Harry Dhami

2008 - Paul McCloskey wins by TKO over Colin Lynes

2008 - Brian Magee wins by KO over Stevie Maguire

2009 - Martin Lyndsay wins by TKO over Paul Appleby


Commonwealth Title :

1992 - Eamonn Loughran wins by TKO over Donavan Boucher

1995 - Noel Magee wins by TKO over Garry Delaney

1997 - Darren Corbett wins by TKO over Chris Okoh

1998 - Eamonn Magee loses a controversial points decision to Lancashire's Paul Burke. A year later Magee beats Burke by TKO in the rematch.

2009 - Martin Rogan wins by TKO over Matt Skelton

The only exception to the rule being when Damaen Kelly won a points decision to Anthony Hanna for the British title in 1999, in this case, no amount of home cooking could sway the fight for Hanna who came into the fight with a 16-25-2 record!

So the question is, after studying all the evidence, is this simply coincidence? Or are the Irish consistently being shafted by the powers that be of the BBBofC?