Welcome to the first article from our “Boxing Angels.” This trio consists of three ladies who are huge fans of the sport. Each week there will be new articles posted by the ladies as well as a weekly mail bag where you can submit your questions for them. Our first Angel is Ilka Moncada-Higuain. If you have questions for Ilka or any of the Angels to follow, you may submit them to info@proboxinginsider.com
By Ilka Moncada-Higuain
Boxing scoring still leaves a lot to be desired. Close fights can produce shutout scorecards and dominant wins can produce close scorecards. Currently the narrowest margin a judge can give is a 10-9 score which is effectively a 10% difference. A scorecard is essentially a statistical analysis of a fight, and the confusing part is often how the judges will arrive at those scores. Some may suggest dividing the total amount of points by 4 for each of the following criteria: clean punching, effective aggression, defense, and ring generalship. However, each of these categories does not hold the same weight. In fact, clean punching is 90% of what judges score by. The only drawback I see with this system is the longer addition, but thats what calculators are for. No system is perfect, but I think it’s an improvement on the 10 point system. I’m not trying to change the sport, I’m just trying to remove the puzzled looks that are too often on fans faces when final scorecards are announced. You can only blame the judges so much.
Another idea might be to give the judges the viewpoint that television viewers have. Judges sit below the action at feet level, where the viewers get a level view of the action, and it looks different to our eyes. A universally panned judges scoring card would be Pacquio vs Bradley.
There have been many bad decisions, but this one ranks among the worst in history. Another example of a poorly scored fight was Marquez vs Pacquio 3. I feel with the bad decision they made, giving Pacquiao the fight over Marquez, kept the possibility of a fight alive between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Had the decision been given to Marquez, the possibility of a match between Pacquiao and Mayweather would have decreased, and no one wants to see another fight between Marquez and Mayweather. Floyd won their first encounter in dominating fashion.
Today I feel boxing continues to decline while mma continues to emerge as one of the top contact sports. Five years ago we had many stars, where today we have many fewer. Aside from Mayweather and Pacquiao, the sport is in need of marquee names. We need another star to ignite the passion of boxing fans.
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