Should blatant play acting be punishable?

[ALI]

The Judah farce of last night has left a sour taste in my mouth. Play acting is a problem within our sport and it really needs addressing. Judah will walk away with his full purse, but he clearly punked out, and in doing so he robbed all the fans who paid to be in attendance and also those who paid to watch it on ppv of a proper conclusive ending. Not just the fact that people parted with money to watch the fight live, many people have traveled from over America, from Great Britain and wherever else. Judah was well beaten, its very unlikely he could have found a way to win, but that gives him no right to cheat his way out of the fight.

When your a prize fighter and being paid handsomely, its your duty to turn up and fight legitimately, and to go out on your shield. If a fighter cheats their way out of a fight they should not be paid the full purse. If a fighter cant hack the pace, then they should go down on one knee (i.e. Cotto v Margarito), or quit on their stool between rounds (i.e. Tyszu v Hatton). Play acting, staying down claiming a foul from a legit punch (i.e. Judah v Khan) or staying down from a phantom punch (i.e. Hide v Klitschko), should be punishable by way of a severe fine.

I'm not sure how it could be enforced, but something needs to be done. Obviously there's lots of tangibles, the video evidence would need to show very, very clearly that the punch landed was legal, or did not land at all, and that the fighter clearly play acted. No easy task proving this in a court of law, but if every now and then a fighter was severly fined for play acting it would be enough to make the Judah's, Hopkins, Hide's etc of this world think twice before performing their theatrics. It would do the sport a lot of good if we could get rid of this sort of nonsense.

[jamesmcdonnell]

yes, by death.

[CiganoBoxer]

I thought the worst display of play acting was Hopkins against Calzaghe ..Hopkins was so blatantly cheating with his crawling around on all fours claiming low blow it was cringe worthy to witness

[LeedsLad]

The Judah farce of last night has left a sour taste in my mouth. Play acting is a problem within our sport and it really needs addressing. Judah will walk away with his full purse, but he clearly punked out, and in doing so he robbed all the fans who paid to be in attendance and also those who paid to watch it on ppv of a proper conclusive ending. Not just the fact that people parted with money to watch the fight live, many people have traveled from over America, from Great Britain and wherever else. Judah was well beaten, its very unlikely he could have found a way to win, but that gives him no right to cheat his way out of the fight.

When your a prize fighter and being paid handsomely, its your duty to turn up and fight legitimately, and to go out on your shield. If a fighter cheats their way out of a fight they should not be paid the full purse. If a fighter cant hack the pace, then they should go down on one knee (i.e. Cotto v Margarito), or quit on their stool between rounds (i.e. Tyszu v Hatton). Play acting, staying down claiming a foul from a legit punch (i.e. Judah v Khan) or staying down from a phantom punch (i.e. Hide v Klitschko), should be punishable by way of a severe fine.

I'm not sure how it could be enforced, but something needs to be done. Obviously there's lots of tangibles, the video evidence would need to show very, very clearly that the punch landed was legal, or did not land at all, and that the fighter clearly play acted. No easy task proving this in a court of law, but if every now and then a fighter was severly fined for play acting it would be enough to make the Judah's, Hopkins, Hide's etc of this world think twice before performing their theatrics. It would do the sport a lot of good if we could get rid of this sort of nonsense.

Seems like a nice idea, but proving these indiscretions is obviously difficult.

One thing that really gets on my nerves is fighters quitting with cuts and gambling on being ahead at the time. The doctors should be more decisive in saying whether a fighter can or can't continue.

Look at Kessler against Ward - being headbutted all night but still wouldn't give up until the decision was made for him.... Alexander bailed out against Bradley and Judah vs Clottey.