USA vs Other Countries - Why is U.S. Doing Badly?

[JMac]

Getting rid of open scoring and how the current scoring system works is one area that needs changes and how the officials are evaluated along with letting the rough stuff go.

I disagree with getting rid of the open scoring. At the 2009 AIBA World Championships the scores were dispalyed and the new sustem not display the score but each individual judges score to the audience. I think that is good and instead of cpmplaining about the scoring system as we have done for the past 18 years, master the system and get it in the grass root gyms. I went to this years PALS and judging was atrocious, I even stood near an official the put her fingers in her mouth to whistle and cheer a boxer from her LBC. These are the things that are killing us.

Ron, with the open scoring, TV announcers and the crowd can see what is scored and what is not, while that can be good, it can also be really bad. Did you not watch the last two Olympics? Teddy Atlas had a field day bad mouthing the judges on what was and was not being scored and so were TV announcers world wide. In pro boxing the judges could close their eyes during the round and you have no idea what they scored but with open scoring, it opens it up to too much criticism. Plus, the boxers still either run or hold in the last round when they have the lead and the judges almost never give points to the boxer who is behind in the last round making it impossible for the boxer to come back unless he hurts his opponent by either knocking him down or getting an eight count.
I said after the Olympics, the only thing more boring than watching the Athens Olympic boxing was watching the Beijing Olympic boxing. Think back to the '76, '84 and '88 Olympics. Were the past two Olympics even close to that? Not by a long shot and the current scoring system along with the open scoring are the blame. Even if USA won a bunch of medals, the boxing in my opinion was really boring to watch and I saw every bout. Why do we have this current scoring system? it's because of what happened in the '88 Olympics and the corrupt judges. Guess what, there are still plenty of corrupt judges. Some countries just have a mentality that cheating means nothing as long as their guy wins. Get rid of that mentality and the bad officials and go back to paper scoring and see excitement come back to amateur boxing.

[Dennis]

With paper scoring, there is a whole lot more drama when the decision is being announced. JMac - you sound like you are with the National Golden Gloves. They would love to go back to paper scoring.

Cheating can take place with any type of scoring system as long as there are humans involved.

[hbomb2]

Ron - The officiating needs to become more consistent from the grass roots level all the way up to the Olympic level. Since we can't change the international rules and how the officials enforce those rules, we will have to change what we can control which is at the local and national levels. When I say officiating, I am talking about the judges and the referees and how both carry out their responsibilities.

Dennis I agree with you...The problem is that we do not have computerized scoring on the grassroot level and quite of few officials on the level are more fans than than upholding the integrity of what the title official stand for (It had to be said because it is true). I have put down on paper the solutions to bringing our team back to where we belong. I have been watching and involved on different levels since 1984. I have not missed a national championship since 1985. I have seen a lot with this organization and all I want is for our country to represent strongly and the direction that we are headed is backward.

[coachrl]

There will always be cheating no matter what format is used. The ref can dock points at will - for stupid reasons. The only thing we can do is to focus, totally dedicate yourself to boxing, and train hard. Try to get as much experience at ALL levels as you possibly can.

[NYboxing]

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/n ... o-pro.html

read this story of some of the reasons Nick Kisner, ranked second in the heavyweight weight class, turned "pro".

*Couldn't find a result for the fight on boxrec, wonder if it happened or he had a change of mind. Found it - Williams didn't pass his meds and the fight was canceled.

[Dennis]

It depends on what your goals are. Nick wanted to be a pro boxer and that was his goal. Some boxers don't even know if they want to turn pro and their goals are to win gold in the Olympics.

Nick is now scheduled to have his pro debut on December 19th.