Do they know the score?

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 22 Aug 2004, 15:54

Another Olympics/Amateur thread I'm afraid.

As Richie and Jim have said many times, the fighters themselves are apparently not aware of the score of the contest. However, surely this is not the case.

Surely the fighters can hear the commentators who repeat the score constantly - also, what is stopping the commentators pre-arranging a signal message at the end of each round to tell the fighter how far ahead/behind it is. Richie Woodhall maybe out of a job when the BBC pull out of boxing completely next year. Amir Khan winning gold, might (just might) prevent the pull out and save Woodhall's media career - it would be worth it for him to form some sort of signal message to Khan's corner.

Anybody been to an event with computer scoring, how easy is it to find out the score?

gash · Post by **gash** » 22 Aug 2004, 16:07

Trust me it aint easy to know the score. It's a very contentious issue in ambox and absolutely ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. During major championships coaches will use young boys as runners to stand near the computers so that they can then run back to the corner to give information between rounds. How crazy is that? You could see in the Olympics as results were announced that boxers were often completley surprised by the final scores. Ask the ABAE their reasoning on this subject but I think you'll find that their answer will be unsatisfactory.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 22 Aug 2004, 16:13

gash wrote:Trust me it aint easy to know the score. It's a very contentious issue in ambox and absolutely ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. During major championships coaches will use young boys as runners to stand near the computers so that they can then run back to the corner to give information between rounds.

If the runners are tolerated, then how come its not easy to know the score going into the last? Is there some kind of punishment if they get caught effectively cheating.

I do agree, some of the reactions do suggests they don't know the score, but surely it can't be that hard to have a very close idea.

I take it you are for the fighters knowing the score, so am I. I am not for the system itself (give me the old non-computer scoring system), but as its in I do think the fighters should know, it would make for a more exicting last round, one chasing the other running.

Lefthookhappy19 · Post by **Lefthookhappy19** » 22 Aug 2004, 16:16

I heard the US corner telling their man the score the other day.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 22 Aug 2004, 16:18

Lefthookhappy19 wrote:I heard the US corner telling their man the score the other day.

Yes, I haven't seen one boxer yet who didn't know the result within a few seconds of the final bell.

gash · Post by **gash** » 22 Aug 2004, 16:45

Yes stujones I'm in favour of a completely transparent judging system. During the ABAS this year the media new the scores but the coaches in the corners had to be quite inventive to get the information; placing girlfriends in appropriate seats who would signal to them for example. It was impossible to employ the runners in Wembley as the security guards closed off the ring area. As you can imagine, on occasion messages have been inacurate and that can prove crucial to a boxer winning a bout. Surely you saw at least one bout during the Olympics where boxers obviously thought they were ahead on points and tried to dance away the final round.

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 23 Aug 2004, 05:36

I was wondering this too - watch Simion at the end of the 4th and he knew he was about to get robbed. He dropped his hands and shook his head, even before the final bell had rung.

Must be easy to do, a member of the squad can just turn on a mini tv in the arena, and relay the score to the corner.

gash · Post by **gash** » 23 Aug 2004, 08:22

The point is why should they have to? This information is vital to a coach who has to get his boxer to employ the right tactics, It's farcical.

steve689 · Post by **steve689** » 23 Aug 2004, 12:11

I should imagine that in the age of technology and with mobile phones and such around there is a way of getting the scores through.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 23 Aug 2004, 12:56

I thought at first it said; "Do they know how to score?"

After the Lee Hughes thread on here, and seeing the performance on Sunday I thought it was another West Brom related e-mail.

gash · Post by **gash** » 23 Aug 2004, 20:32

steve689

I should imagine that in the age of technology and with mobile phones and such around there is a way of getting the scores through.

Of course there are ways but as I said above "The point is why should they have to?"

I imagine it is easier to know what the score is at a tourney such as the Olympics but I deliberately sat behind the main computers at various ABA tourneys and the JrABAs to make sure I could see how they were scoring. The old boys actually hold a piece of paper over the computer screen to cover, there are only brief points when you can read what the scores are. I mean for fucks sake how can that be called anything other than ridiculous?