What sporting events have you thought were fixed?

Balboa-Drago, Christmas night 1985.

 

Curious about this choice. Since no one ever talks about the first 39:57 of the game having a bunch of irregularities.

If there was a fix, who was involved? If it was just the IOC/officials --- and not Iba or the US team --- then it makes no sense, because no amount of horrible officiating should have allowed the US to lose, had it played the correct way.

And since there were no horrible calls in the first 39:57 --- at least none I can remember --- that tells me the ONLy reason the USSR had a chance was because of the shitty way the US was coached. So any fix of that game almost had to be perpetrated by Iba . . . even though the IOC/officials get 99.986% of the heat.

Oh, and Super Bowl III, definitely. Hope they paid you well, Morrall.

 

Junior's first win after Dale died.

Richard Petty's 200th win.

 

Half of boxing matches. Hundreds of horse races.

 

The 1972 Olympic final was utterly, undeniably fixed.

Not for any mundane reason like gambling payoffs, etc etc.

What happpened was a little British pencil-pusher suddenly realized he had the opportunity to take down the biggest winning streak in Olympic history, and decided to do it his ownself, no matter how many clock restarts it took.

And yes, Iba deserves a lot of the blame.

And that's why no U.S. Olympic basketball coach (of either gender) should ever, ever, ever, allow himself or his team to ever be satisfied with anything less than a 50-point goddamn lead with 15 seconds to play.

And why any shithead who coaches with the objective of having a 50-49 lead with 3 seconds to play, deserves to be instantly fired, no matter if he thinks that's "the right way to play" or not.

 

Damn. Solid.

 

I'd say the Steelers over the Oilers in the playoffs back in the 1970s, but that's more whiny fanboi than any real evidence.

 

I've seen that highlight enough....it was a terrible call. Not bad enough that I'd call it a fix, but they did get it wrong.

 

In most cases, the participants involved in the "fixed" games just weren't good enough to overcome a couple of bad calls. My problem is when a team is kicking another team's ass and the officiating levels the playing field. (The Oregon-Oklahoma football game of a few years ago comes to mind).
Holyfield got dq'd by mistake and was awarded a bronze. But the Roy Jones decision, where the guy who "won" was black and blue went over and apologized to Jones and held up his hand knowing it was a screwjob was one of the classier moments in the Olympics I've seen (by the boxer, not the judges).
Figure skating IS fixed. Gymnastics IS fixed. Pretty much any sport with "judges" is fixed. Of all the major sports, basketball is the easiest sport to fix and likewise has the toughest task to show it's aboveboard. I've always wondered why basketball refs check the scorebook at halftime (to see who is in foul trouble? To make sure they even out the fouls?)
Football can hinge on one play, baseball can have wide or narrow strike zones, but if a pitcher puts one in there, nothing can stop a hitter from swinging at it.

 

Agree that any sport with "judges" is fixed.

Just look at the scorecards during any of the Olympics during the Cold War.

 

If I remember correctly, the referee who "accidently" disqualified Holyfield was from the same country or in some other way had ties to the fighter who was handed a gold medal by the decision. Holyfield absolutely destroyed the guy he beat in that semifinal and very likely would have won the gold medal match. The apology was bullshit.

 

Holyfield was a monster in the Olympics, knocked out every guy he fought, very rare in amateur boxing. He got DQ'd for punching when the ref was calling for a break, a bang-bang play in boxing.

Nowhere near as heinous as Roy Jones getting screwed, easily the worst decision I have seen at any level of boxing in the 30-odd years I've been watching.