Shakedownsports.com

There is one thing about the sport of boxing thatmakes it different than any other sport. In boxing the competitors don’t know who is winning. Think about that for a moment. In every other sport, an individual or team knows where they stand and they can then alter their strategy based on that. In football teams that are behind throw the ball down the field. In basketball they push it up the floor and take three pointers. These strategies are conducive to creating an exciting sporting event, because they increase the chance the game will be close.

In boxing you have none of this because people don’t actually know who is winning. What you end up getting is two fighters who play defense for the last three rounds because each thinks he is winning. Simply put, keeping the judges scores a secret creates less exciting fights. Is there anybody out there who doesn’t think the final rounds of the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight would have been more exciting if De La Hoya knew that he was behind on two of the cards? It’s also unfair to the fighters to not let them know where they stand. How many fights have there been where a boxer was shocked to lose a decision after taking it easy in the last round because he thought he had a lead.

It’s time for boxing to have the judges publicly announce their scores after every round. This may not actually fix any of boxing’s problems, but it’s worth a shot. Boxers may still feel like they get cheated out of victories, but at least they’ll know when it’s happening and have a chance to change the outcome before the fight ends. Most importantly, boxers will now be able to alter their strategy based on the score. The boxers who trail will be trying to turn the final rounds into a slugfest. The boxers who are ahead will likely accommodate them. Fights will become more exciting. Making scores public may sound like an unheard of idea in boxing, but it’s how every single other sports works. It’s time boxing joined them.

1 Comment »