Andre Ward winning the belt still means more money than Kovalev, in theory. Kov is "seen" as a foreign fighter and he's signed to Kathy Duva, and was only well-known among boxing hardcores. Ward is seen as marketable and could have become a mainstay (had he not resigned). Albeit he is signed to Roc Nation which isn't particularly huge in boxing. Nonetheless, I'm not saying 'every' dodgy decision is down to promoters, it can be just shit judges. But the money and marketing aspect was certainly there in Kov-Ward, in favor of Ward being champ.
I disagree that its hard to win title fights on foreign-soil in Japan (beyond the ordinary). Japan uses foreign-judges during
world title fights. None of them are Japanese. So the countrymen argument falls there. I believe its the same in Russia.
Just few months ago in May, the WBA suspended 2 judges who officiated the Hassan N'Dam vs Ryota Murata fight for the vacant MW title. They gave it split-decision to N'Dam, over the local Murata. It was considered a bad decision and the WBA suspended the judges from working their fights. The judges were Gustavo Padilla (Panama) and Hubert Earle (Canada).
Judging favoring home fighters is something you'll see commonly in Britain and Germany. But even that I'd argue also ties in with promoters, since the home fighter is 'usually' promoted by a local and the visiting fighter by a foreign promoter. But favorable judging in Japan and Russia is a myth, as they don't even use home judges, but flown in through the sanctioning body (hence, why the WBA was able to reprimand them).
