Poll shows only a quarter of British fans think Froch beat Dirrell

Only 27% of British fight fans think Carl Froch deserved to get the nod over American Andre Dirrell on Saturday night, according to a poll by BoxRec.com.

Froch, defending his WBC super-middleweight title in front of his home town Nottingham fans as part of Showtime's exciting 'Super Six' tournament, got the split decision verdict by way of two 115-112 scorecards whilst the third judge went for Dirrell by 114-113.

At the time of writing, 143 votes have been cast on Boxrec's British forum so it is hardly a huge sample size but it does reflect the discontent some hardcore fight fans have with the result. 

30% of voters scored the contest 7 or above on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a 'blatant robbery'.

The polarisation of opinion is very apparent but there seems to be some consistency in that many fans who were at the Nottingham Arena scored it comfortably for Froch whilst most of those who watched the fight on television preferred Dirrell's effort.

Personally, the calls of 'fix' or 'robbery' seem rather hollow - and not because I am some kind of rampant patriot or Froch loyalist.  The likelihood that two respected foreign officials have colluded in anything underhand is remote; couple that with the fact that several (although a minority) of seasoned observers saw the fight in The Cobra's favour reflects that there is a case to be made for the Englishman.

Some fights are much harder to score than others, especially ones in which one of the combatants is rather negative and awkward. 

It does throw up the long-established and ever-present argument over the interpretative nature of the scoring of fights.  'Twas ever thus and always will be. 

In the words of Winston 'Left Hook' Churchill, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried."