@mikayare @elektraelysion @mary328
In the manga, this is the guy handing the decision cards from the judges to the referee.
My question is, doesn't it look like Otaka, Wolf's old manager?
Does this imply that Wolf's old coach was...judging Joe's final match?
This all started from a discord conversation I was having. I was talking about the decision in this match, and that while I don't think Joe was LITERALLY cheated out of a victory, if people like Otaka were judging the match, they wouldn't be likely to charitably score rounds for Joe and I got the response that I was probably conspiracy theorizing rather than this being a fact.
In the manga, Danpei literally tells Joe not to fight in Mexico because of hometown bias in favor of Jose
The actual match is officiated in Tokyo by the JBC--who hated Joe and thought of him as a wild guy ruining their assets and pushed him out. It's true they suck up to Danpei at that TV Kanto party Jose crashes but I don't think these guys held any real friendship towards Tange Gym or viewed them as a lucrative investment
In 1970s boxing matches, one judge would come from each boxer's country. In Joe vs Jose, this would mean one Mexican judge and one Japanese judge. The Mexican judge as mentioned by Danpei would probably vote for the Mexican champion....but Joe is disliked by the Japanese boxing establishment too (they literally tried to get rid of him).
Does this not translate into absolute corruption and an uneven playing field for Joe? They probably couldn't do outright bullshit because it was all on camera, but they probably would NOT score any round charitably for Joe if there was any interpretation to be had at all about who was winning.
I'd just appreciate everyone's thoughts on this. To be clear, I'm not saying Joe was literally robbed of victory, I'm just making the point that these people were corrupt and he wouldn't have been in their favor.
