The tradition of closed scoring

[Master]

what about a fans card as an extra card of five? fans vote in for a average card. toss out the two furthest cards of the five

Then it becomes a popularity contest, the boxer with the most fans wins the fan card.

[J_Undisputed]

As much as i hate to say it .. It'd probably stick with closed scoring. I don't want to encourage running and I want to spur on the losing guy to get that highlight reel ko from behind. (Like a kevin Kelley vs Gainer ko) I guess my logic is that whiles, it would be great if the last few rounds of every bout, turned into a dog fight.... by the stage of the fight where this matters, its not really much of a secret anymore. Nor should it be.

Fighters know the game, the promoters, the networks, the commissions, the judges and the outright fuckery that exists in between them. If you can knock a guy out but need a scoreboard to tell you to do it late in the fight "or else", you probably deserve to lose. Runners and dancers rarely even needed to be clued in as to when they should get on their bike. Late in the fight its a lot easier for the guy who runs holds, spits out his mouth piece, pulls someone down with them , fakes an injury to get away with what they do than it is for someone who couldn't knock them out for 12 rounds, to suddenly turn around and find the magic bullet.

Now on the other hand if it resulted in more fighters saying "i have plenty of points to spare so let full nelson this guy and ram his head into the corner pad..." well, that could be interesting ..

[powerpuncher]

The issue is that boxing never changes its rules. It is very traditional. Basically every other sport has changed major things to combat certain issues. I always compare boxing to wrestling. International wrestling has created harsher “stalling” rules. If the one wrestler is running, they get hit with a warning, then a point deduction, another one, then DQ’d.

Boxing could do the same thing potentially. Create point deductions if a fighter is just running (I get it’s subjective). I just have seen all of these sports changed rules to fix problems whereas boxing just hasn’t. Most of their changes have been negative it seems.

[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.

[Spicoli]

As much as i hate to say it .. It'd probably stick with closed scoring. I don't want to encourage running and I want to spur on the losing guy to get that highlight reel ko from behind. (Like a kevin Kelley vs Gainer ko) I guess my logic is that whiles, it would be great if the last few rounds of every bout, turned into a dog fight.... by the stage of the fight where this matters, its not really much of a secret anymore. Nor should it be.

Fighters know the game, the promoters, the networks, the commissions, the judges and the outright fuckery that exists in between them. If you can knock a guy out but need a scoreboard to tell you to do it late in the fight "or else", you probably deserve to lose. Runners and dancers rarely even needed to be clued in as to when they should get on their bike. Late in the fight its a lot easier for the guy who runs holds, spits out his mouth piece, pulls someone down with them , fakes an injury to get away with what they do than it is for someone who couldn't knock them out for 12 rounds, to suddenly turn around and find the magic bullet.

Now on the other hand if it resulted in more fighters saying "i have plenty of points to spare so let full nelson this guy and ram his head into the corner pad..." well, that could be interesting ..

The cynic in me thinks you'd see a reasonable increase in guys trailing by near shut out turning up 'shoulder or hand injuries' by way of corner consensus or fighter themselves at different levels of the game. Save it for another day just not your night etc. Might also see refs doing the same and knowing a guys history of throwing snowballs and that they would have little chance for ko.

[TIC]

what about a fans card as an extra card of five? fans vote in for a average card. toss out the two furthest cards of the five

Then it becomes a popularity contest, the boxer with the most fans wins the fan card.

not always. most who would take the time to fill in score cards are usually serious followers of the sport. sure you will get the haters or fan boys voting hard one way or the other but you take the average for each round & like i said you throw out the two widest cards of the five