How Judges Score Fights

As a boxing fan I’m often asked how judges score fights or what fight where they watching? So in this post I will try and answer that question, as well as looking at ways the judging system can be improved.

 

All professional boxing matches are scored on what’s called the 10 points must system.  Which means that there are 3 judges sitting at ringside and they score the fight one round at a time, with one fighter getting 10 points and the other getting 9. However when there is a knockdown the fighter that has been knockdown will lose one point so the round will be scored 10-8. By now I bet your wondering what is it that judges are looking for when they are scoring a fight, there are 4 main areas and these are:

•  Aggression: Judges will look for the fighter who is trying to dominate the fight but this doesn’t just mean been on the front foot and pushing their opponent round the ring. It means they have to be landing shots and not get caught by their opponent.

• Ring craft: A judge will look for the fighter who is controlling the ring and making in as small as possible, they will also be looking for the fighter who is able to impose there fighting style on the fight.

• Defence: The judges will also look at a fighters defensive skills, how many punches he blocked   or slips. Sometimes a good Defence can be just as good as a well landed shot.

• Clean punches: Judges look at how many punches a fighter lands, and not the punches that miss or are blocked or hit his opponent’s arms. It is a judges job to only score shots that land clean.

In my opinion the current system of scoring fights is fundamentally flawed because it’s too subjective many fights come down to what a judge likes. Another problem with the current systems there is no consistency and I think this is what frustrates boxing fans and pundits.  Now I’m not saying that judging a fight is easy because it’s not and I wouldn’t want to do it I’m just saying  it needs improving .

So here are just some ideas that I think will improve the way fights are judged:

•   Take the judges away from ringside: The 3 judges should be in a locked room backstage and they should watch all the fights on CCTV with no sound. This way the judges will only be focused on the fight, and they won’t be influenced by the crowd in the arena or people at ringside.

•  Make the judges score cards public: The judges cards should be made public after the 4th, 6th, and 10th rounds. Under the current system boxing is one of the only sports were a fighter does not know if he’s winning, or what he needs to do to win until the end of the fight.  By doing this it may also encourage more consistent scoring. It may also be a good idea to make the judges explain publicly  why they scored  a fight in a certain way, because if judges know there going to have to account publicly for their actions this will encourage more consistent scoring which at the end of the day is what we all want.

•  Computerised scoring system: Now I’m sure at this point your all thinking I’ve lost the plot, but one of the issues with judging at the moment is it’s too subjective, if computerised scoring was used it would become more objective  and it would take away the possibility   of human error.

I’m not saying that all these ideas should be used these are just some that I think will help improve the sport we all love.

 

Please comment in the box below and let me know  what you think.