Or maybe I should say different from the way the sport governs the judging of fights. One might ask here, WTF is he talking about?

Seeing a fight on TV is VERY different from seeing it at ringside. VERY different. Here are some of the reasons why (in no order).

1. Positioning-On TV generally one sees the action from above and from a variety of angles in a given round. Judges see the action from below and from a constant angle.

2. 2-D vs 3-D-Television really can deaden the action of a sport like boxing. Sitting right at the ring crisp punches look far more damaging than they do on TV and slick movements that just evade punches can be seen far more clearly. TV dulls the action just a little bit.

3. The Impact of the Crowd and Broadcast-There can be no question the choices the broadcasting team makes poisons the objectivity of the viewer. What do I mean? Well commentary for one thing may draw one's attention to something one wouldn't otherwise have noticed (a bad thing) and Harold Lederman scoring also doesn't help. It's the equivalent of one of the problems with "open scoring." Also things like slow motion and instant replay are poisonous (from a judging perspective) because some technician in a truck is telling you "this is important."

4. Distractions-How often is your mind or your vision off the TV for even a few seconds a round, either because the trip to the fridge or the john took a little long, or you got a call, or you are chatting with friends while watching the fight?

5. Non-visual Keys-When at ringside one often gains vital clues about what is going on in the ring by sound. The thud of a punch landing to the body, the silence as what seems to land doesn't, the gasp of a fighter taking a shot etc. One usually can't get access to these clues on TV.

Now all of this doesn't necessarily mean that judging at ringside is right and we're wrong judging from our living rooms. Hell, one could plausibly argue fights should be scored from above on TV by judges in cubicles isolated from the crowd. But throughout boxing history it has been presumed true that the people closest to the action were more likely to get it right than people in row three or row 33 etc. The point is the perspectives are very DIFFERENT in all the ways I have noted above. THAT is why when we see decisions we disagree with, especially close ones? The best response is perhaps to be a little humble and think maybe we didn't get the best perspective on that one.