Outrageous Scoring: Political or Poor Judgement?

[BoomBoom]

Too often in boxing, the wrong man will win a decision in a close fight in his hometown. That has been part of the sport as long as it has been around. Hometown advantages should not exist, but they do. Last night got me thinking, wht would a judgescore a close fight 118-110 for the hometown kid. He could have easily scored it 116-112 for Diaz, which would hve been incorrest, but not as much drama would have ensued. Why such a domanant score for Juan?
I think that is probably a combonation of incompetance, pursuasion by the crowd, but the biggest reason for this type of scoring is watching one fighter. If you watch a fight and have your eyes on what one fighter is doing, which I think was the case for this judge, you see what he is getting done and your not seeing the whole picture. To me, this is in the category of bias, and a judge that cant watch a fight and score it objectively, has no place in the sport. I do believe that this judge truly believes that Diaz won 10 rounds. That is even more disturbing than the actual scorecard.
HBO, in the form of Max Kellerman, saying that it is not surprising that a hometown kid gets a decision in a competitive fight is basically acknowledging the corruption factor in boxing. So basically if your fighting for a title in the other guys back yard, you better win almost every round to ensure a decision or knock him out. And as much as I hate to say it, Kellerman is right. This is something that fighters have been up against as soon as they get in the backyard ring. The buden is on the out of town fighter. And that is wrong.
Judging a professional fight is not a particularly hard job. All it takes is an understaning of boxing, fairness, and knowlege of 5th grade addition. What needs to happen is mandatory fight reviews in decisions that there is a wide scoring descrepancy between the three judges. Or maybe the judges should include a sentence along with the scoring at the end of the round giving a brief explanation as to why their man won the round. Perhaps judges should be more randomly selected. I dont know what the perfect solution is, but the scoring process needs a reform.

[El Kabong]

May as well have called that Diaz-Malinaggi fight a "Handicap Match".....it was at a catch weight, in a small ring, and all the judges were local, and Malinaggi got jobbed.

I'm no fan of Paulie, but the deck was stacked against him.

[Spicoli]

There should be mandatory reviews and evaluations not only in close fights but all fights a Judge AND referee are assigned as often they are tasked with both.I dont know how often this happens on the same card but it should not happen.Commissions must hold its representatives accountable!

A judges history should be treated like a complete resume and followed accordingly,are their patterns,what past scores were tallied with same fighters....hometown fighters or even a fighters style.Boxing has always shot itself in the foot 12 times without reloading once and while it should never be shrugged off and treated with an "ohhh well" mentality you cannot forget that fighters are complete contrasts,especially last night.One in reverse the majority of the time ...ring generalship,controlled boxing and one plugging forward mostly...effective aggression,forcing a pace Paulie might as well have put a scarlet letter on his chest going in and he made it personal before the cards were even handed in.

[OumaFan]

118-110 is obviously steep but I have no problems seeing how they could come up with 116-112, I mean I had it 7-5 Juan and I was listening to Max Kellerman slobber all over Paulie from round 1 on. Sitting in the crowd, with them exploding every time Juan landed, with Juan being the one landing the more eye catching power shots, with him being the one moving Paulie and seemingly affecting him with his shots, and with him pushing the fight its really no surprise. In fact I suspect most of us would have had it 8-4 if we were sitting in the arena.

[BoomBoom]

Yeah I agree Spicoli, there is no accountability right now. A judge could be sleep in and fill out the scorecard at the end of the fight, turn it in, and get away with it. No questions asked by anyone but the fans.

Lyle, I agree that the deck was stacked against him, but he also needs to realize that the outcome wasnt what was messed up, it was the scores. You could make a case for Paulie winning, but you could for Diaz too.

Ouma, another thing to that I think made Juan look bad was the cut and blood factor. Some of the rounds he won, he didnt get credit for by some people who had Paulie winning because he looked like a beaten man. But, by no means did Paulie decisively win imo. A draw or 115-113 either way would be fine though. As I said in the other thread, Raul Caiz was fair and really doesnt deserve the bashing hes getting. At least not for this one.

[Spicoli]

We clearly need more Teddy's....now THIS was an out right robbery!You can almost here the announcers disbelief as he reads the second score.One thing they should also do is introduce each Judge on camera as they do the refs,put a face on them.I believe they do this over seas but you rarely see it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=578Ty9TLbuo

[thewhale]

In Denmark Mogens Palle had his own judges and time and time again the away fighters where robbed, the crow often buhed when the home kid won, the receipy was simple, get a fighter a perfert record something like 30-0 then aim at a titlefight