How would you change boxing scoring/judging if you could change it?

[-Kev-]

If it was up to me, remove the 3 judges, keep the ref obviously. Implement open scoring (of punches landed) like literally every other sport. Certain punches equal certain points, like other sports. Knock downs equals the most points.

Jab landed = 1 point
Other than jab landed = 2 points
Fighter was badly hurt/wobbled = 2.5 points for the punch that caused it
Knock down = 3 points

Get rid of the 10 to winner, 9 to loser scoring system. If you suffer a KD and get fcked up in a round, no, you don’t deserve 8 points. 8 points for what? Just for showing up?

Allow punch counters to score what punches landed in real time, but also allow other punch counters to watch replays to make sure said punches landed. Deduct or add points accordingly. Allow boxers to know if they are winning or losing.

Even baseball, one of the most stubborn sports in America, that refuses to do away with many of their outdated officiating ways, have changed the game drastically in the last 10 years. It’s time for boxing to do the same.

3 people judging a fight based on what they saw is way too backwards. Especially when these 3 people judging a fight are known beforehand, and announced to all parties, all bettors know, all influential people know. These 3 judges are just people, they can be spoken to, they can be contacted, they can be compromised by rich people.

[_Rexy_]

I thought the bubble would help, zero fan noise and all you get to hear was the noise in the ring.

but there were just as many ******ed cards as ever

[crimsonfalcon07]

If we wanted to make relatively small changes that should be easy for any sport that wanted to be taken seriously, I would start with allowing calls to be challenged and reviewed using instant replay and give the judges access to the footage as well between rounds. So if a knockdown gets called that wasn't, it can be reviewed and that call overturned immediately.

Open scoring, so fighters know where they stand after each round.

Random judge selection with televised selection, and opportunity for each side to challenge the selection a specified number of times.

Have a mechanism for challenges to controversial decisions wherein a larger random panel of judges can be selected to review the decision and overturn it if necessary. Major penalties, such as fines and getting downgraded, for egregious scores that don't match the review score cards. Require judge interviews post fight.

And standardized rules for every commission. National commission would be good, but still prone to corruption.

All of this would be easy to implement, and would have an immediate effect on corruption, particularly open scoring. Fighters would then be able to adjust their strategies on the fly based on what the judges are favoring, and there'd be no need for unofficial scorecards.

I'd also put the women under the same rules as the men. Works fine in MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing, BJJ, etc. Basically every other combat sport.

None of this will happen because the people making the rules are fundamentally corrupt.

Would also be nice if the sanctioning organizations would require that their champs not be removed from the rankings to encourage unification.

[juggernaut666]

Simple just sit the judges down blindfolded and every round they pick out of a hat with two names on pieces of paper for each round . If the fighters don’t like the decision it’s because they know it’s by chance and should go for knockouts . In an event a freak occurrence happens and it’s a draw a sudden death round happens where the judges are allowed to watch it but still pick out of a hat .

Problem solved .

[4truth]

I'd add a decimal place to the scores. Win a round clearly 10-9 round. Eke it out, you get less. Maybe it's only a 10-9.8 round.

Edit. If you aren't sharp enough to do the math, maybe judging professional boxing isn't for you.

[Joseph]

More than three judges, maybe? It's never felt quite right leaving fight decisions to such a small number of individuals.

[Roadblock]

It has nothing to do with a point for this and that, its seeing the same fight that is the issue, judges sit in 3 places all with a different views so they will see things the others don't and so the scores can really be wild for us who see the same fight from the same view, how to fix it is give them each a monitor that also shows the telecast muted, bring in trial by the camera when things can be overruled instantly, make it five judges in championship fights 1 on every side and the 5th in a room with only the telecast.

Would be very hard to cheat that system and its not money as big fights could easily afford the extra judges, boxing needs to move with the times it's a digital age and it can be so useful in making accurate calls as we see its use in other sports.

[TelMex]

Get rid of Moretti and Weeks as a start...

[Smash]

i would say u would need a more impartial pool of judges, for example u have 3 americans on every fight in vegas seems to me a bit odd, how can that work out right i cant see it

an international pool of judges trained up and have to pass tests to get a place & are actually accountable and judged on performances and punished for bad ones

compubox on steroids, possibly a few people hitting the buttons for every scoring punch, logged for time in the round so people can assess how accurate they are using replays, for example if some clown is hitting a button for non scoring punches this will be seen, maybe even display these incoming results in real time if viewers wish to see it, just with a little colour button flash on the screen maybe, use tech more

5 judges and get rid of the wildest 2 scores each round to make corruption harder

im sure smart people can come up with way better suggestions and learn from other sports

[crimsonfalcon07]

It has nothing to do with a point for this and that, its seeing the same fight that is the issue, judges sit in 3 places all with a different views so they will see things the others don't and so the scores can really be wild for us who see the same fight from the same view, how to fix it is give them each a monitor that also shows the telecast muted, bring in trial by the camera when things can be overruled instantly, make it five judges in championship fights 1 on every side and the 5th in a room with only the telecast.

Would be very hard to cheat that system and its not money as big fights could easily afford the extra judges, boxing needs to move with the times it's a digital age and it can be so useful in making accurate calls as we see its use in other sports.

Using tech is obvious and would be trivially easy to implement because they're already doing it on the telecast anyways for "unofficial" checks of calls. People who don't think there are robberies in controversial fights need to ask themselves why these simple things haven't been introduced and implemented.