The tradition of closed scoring

[TitoFan]

I'm all for rule changes. Heaven knows plenty of other sports have changed their rules over time. But it should be done to address specific issues... and the changes should be well thought-out and intelligent. They should also avoid creating new problems while solving old ones. We all agree scoring in boxing leaves a lot to be desired. Concentrate on that. I feel strongly about increasing the number of judges to five... then removing the outliers or "points out of the curve." A professional judge gets his/her score removed enough times... it becomes an embarrassment. Allowing a fighter to run after building up an insurmountable lead, especially if borne out by open scoring, would result in unwatchable rounds in the latter part of fights. Also... what's with the waiting and waiting while scores get added up? That is so 19th century. Like I said... gather the scores after each round, so when the fight ends the final score is a mere formality announced within a minute of the fight ending. When they take too long, it just begins to smell like rotten fish.

[powerpuncher]

I'm all for rule changes. Heaven knows plenty of other sports have changed their rules over time. But it should be done to address specific issues... and the changes should be well thought-out and intelligent. They should also avoid creating new problems while solving old ones. We all agree scoring in boxing leaves a lot to be desired. Concentrate on that. I feel strongly about increasing the number of judges to five... then removing the outliers or "points out of the curve." A professional judge gets his/her score removed enough times... it becomes an embarrassment. Allowing a fighter to run after building up an insurmountable lead, especially if borne out by open scoring, would result in unwatchable rounds in the latter part of fights. Also... what's with the waiting and waiting while scores get added up? That is so 19th century. Like I said... gather the scores after each round, so when the fight ends the final score is a mere formality announced within a minute of the fight ending. When they take too long, it just begins to smell like rotten fish.

I think those are good ideas, but again, can you imagine something like basketball where you weren’t sure what the score was? You could make the argument that it slows the game down at the end. Same with football (American and soccer). That’s a part of sports. You know you have a lead and you waste time off the clock. It’s not always fun, but fortunately, boxing still has the KO option unlike these other sports. That’s why I mentioned wrestling as an example. They have rules where you can get DQ’d if you start to run at the end instead of engaging.