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.