How Do You Score A Round?

[keithmoonhangover]

Just wondering what things you look for when you score a round....

For you, is it about power punches, total punches landed or blocking/making the other guy miss?

[BoxBuzz]

For many women, they just go into the bar, look a bit lost, and before you know, voila! Drink in hand!

[gilgamesh]

Just wondering what things you look for when you score a round....

For you, is it about power punches, total punches landed or blocking/making the other guy miss?

I tend to make a note of each little 30 second increment of the fight, who I think is getting the better of the round at that moment, of course in some rounds everything can turn on a dime. There are lots of rounds where everything is equal or one guy is getting the better of it ever so slightly and then one guy lands a real hard shot, and suddenly the round swings his way.

Some rounds are really hard to call, but I find this method to be helpful most of the time...it also helps you not to forget what happened early in the round. Often judges (myself included) have a tendency to get caught up in what happens in the last minute of a round and forget the first few minutes.

Even this is not a foolproof system though. Because really it's all about damage for me first and foremost. Who's doing the most damage, who's hurting who most. Sometimes a guy does far more damage in the last minute than the other guy did in the first few minutes. A prime example of this is Pacquiao-Bradley.

Overall though, I'd say my scorecards generally reflect the fight pretty accurately.

[keithmoonhangover]

Just wondering what things you look for when you score a round....

For you, is it about power punches, total punches landed or blocking/making the other guy miss?

I tend to make a note of each little 30 second increment of the fight, who I think is getting the better of the round at that moment, of course in some rounds everything can turn on a dime. There are lots of rounds where everything is equal or one guy is getting the better of it ever so slightly and then one guy lands a real hard shot, and suddenly the round swings his way.

Some rounds are really hard to call, but I find this method to be helpful most of the time...it also helps you not to forget what happened early in the round. Often judges (myself included) have a tendency to get caught up in what happens in the last minute of a round and forget the first few minutes.

Even this is not a foolproof system though. Because really it's all about damage for me first and foremost. Who's doing the most damage, who's hurting who most. Sometimes a guy does far more damage in the last minute than the other guy did in the first few minutes. A prime example of this is Pacquiao-Bradley.

Overall though, I'd say my scorecards generally reflect the fight pretty accurately.

You don't take into account a fighter's defence? Blocking/dodging/making the opponent miss?

[gilgamesh]

Just wondering what things you look for when you score a round....

For you, is it about power punches, total punches landed or blocking/making the other guy miss?

I tend to make a note of each little 30 second increment of the fight, who I think is getting the better of the round at that moment, of course in some rounds everything can turn on a dime. There are lots of rounds where everything is equal or one guy is getting the better of it ever so slightly and then one guy lands a real hard shot, and suddenly the round swings his way.

Some rounds are really hard to call, but I find this method to be helpful most of the time...it also helps you not to forget what happened early in the round. Often judges (myself included) have a tendency to get caught up in what happens in the last minute of a round and forget the first few minutes.

Even this is not a foolproof system though. Because really it's all about damage for me first and foremost. Who's doing the most damage, who's hurting who most. Sometimes a guy does far more damage in the last minute than the other guy did in the first few minutes. A prime example of this is Pacquiao-Bradley.

Overall though, I'd say my scorecards generally reflect the fight pretty accurately.

You don't take into account a fighter's defence? Blocking/dodging/making the opponent miss?

Of course I do, especially if everything else is dead even or if not much else is happening. But hard, damaging blows are first and foremost in my mind.

[keithmoonhangover]

You don't take into account a fighter's defence? Blocking/dodging/making the opponent miss?

Of course I do, especially if everything else is dead even or if not much else is happening. But hard, damaging blows are first and foremost in my mind.

I re-watched SRL vs Hagler this morning and it's amazing how many shots Leonard slipped, ducked and avoided.

[gilgamesh]

You don't take into account a fighter's defence? Blocking/dodging/making the opponent miss?

Of course I do, especially if everything else is dead even or if not much else is happening. But hard, damaging blows are first and foremost in my mind.

I re-watched SRL vs Hagler this morning and it's amazing how many shots Leonard slipped, ducked and avoided.

I scored Leonard vs Hagler 114-114 even. I only ever watched it once though.

[keithmoonhangover]

I scored Leonard vs Hagler 114-114 even. I only ever watched it once though.

I know a few people that watched it again and scored it for Leonard. Sugar Ray shows some amazing defensive skills.

[gilgamesh]

I scored Leonard vs Hagler 114-114 even. I only ever watched it once though.

I know a few people that watched it again and scored it for Leonard. Sugar Ray shows some amazing defensive skills.

It was a pretty good fight, I'll probably check it out again one of these days.

[keithmoonhangover]

I scored Leonard vs Hagler 114-114 even. I only ever watched it once though.

I know a few people that watched it again and scored it for Leonard. Sugar Ray shows some amazing defensive skills.

It was a pretty good fight, I'll probably check it out again one of these days.

A while back, I watched the whole fight twice with the sound off. The first time I just watched what Hagler landed, the second I just watched Ray. It was really interesting - for a boxing nerd like myself.

[MEISINGER]

i do not think there is a 100% right answer

there are too many variables

and each fight is unique in its own way
if that makes sense

[keithmoonhangover]

i do not think there is a 100% right answer

there are too many variables

and each fight is unique in its own way
if that makes sense

Makes sense to me.

[Clint Magnum]

i do not think there is a 100% right answer

there are too many variables

and each fight is unique in its own way
if that makes sense

That's the problem, it simply isn't that difficult. More decisions would be correct if more ex boxers took up judging/refereeing. The ten point must system is clear. It has to be EFFECTIVE punching, on target with the knuckle part of the glove. That can be effective punching on the front foot or the back foot. Account should be made of blocking, parrying, slipping and countering as "EFFECTIVE ring generalship". The problem with a lot of judges is that they haven't fought. They score too heavily on the guy who takes the centre of the ring, even if he is shipping shots. The must system rules state points go to the agressor ONLY if the round is otherwise even.

[MEISINGER]

A difficult task for most Humans.

Take the Halgler - Leonard bout.

Nobody can come up with a clear scoring card.

this is my point.there are too many variables on what we all watch for.
we could argue all day about who won this bout.
but being objective either fighter could of won.

[MEISINGER]

another example was trout canelo
everyone on here and the press scored this fight differently.

whose way of scoring was right?

[keithmoonhangover]

A difficult task for most Humans.

Take the Halgler - Leonard bout.

Nobody can come up with a clear scoring card.

Leonard showed some amazing defensive skills in that fight, Hagler on the other hand caught almost everything Leonard threw. If you take that into account, when you watch rounds, Leonard won more of them than Hagler.

[Seamus]

One of the things I find ridiculous is a guy winning a rd can have his glove touch the deck, and he loses the rd 10-8 in the eyes of a lot of judges, At the same time, if a guy goes down twice it's 10-7, but 3 times is seldomly scored 10-6. I had this discussion once with a fight manager when we were discussing Paez v Grove !. Paez scored 3 knockdowns in the final rd and I said I scored it 10-6, to which the guy suddenly said "What ? I never heard of 10-6 rd.

[man]

i think of it as a flat line. upper region is fighter A,
below the line is fighter B. with each significant action
the line moves up or down. just landing scoring but not
hurting shots moves the line slowly, hard shots move it
fast. i feel like this is a way to cover both history and
current action within a round.

i find defensive action difficult to give scoring credit for.
in the end avoiding shots can't make you win a fight. i
cherish defensive skills but i find them difficult to score.
should avoiding a shot score the same as landing one?

if something superb happens like pernell against oscar
i move my "line" in his direction. when someone repeatedly
makes other guy miss i do that ... but it takes three or
four such forced misses to compensate one landed shot.
and it must be clear reflex that makes the shot miss ...

good defensive boxing is difficult to score and the most
controversial thing in the sport IMO. at the same time i do
not do give much credit for forward movement as such. just
going forward is no achievement IMO. oscar going forward
against floyd and not throwing doesn't score much. same
with margarito against cotto in the second one. forward
mode and being hit is to me (almost) the same as not
going forward and being hit. this is why leonard won to
me close but in a way clear against hagler, whose forward
motion did not lead to clean landing shots. "running" while
"landing" is a cool thing IMO.

[Ambling Alp II]

Just wanted to touch on a few things:

-Defense. Obvioulsy that is important; you need to prevent the other guy from scoring. However, you have to some scoring yourself. If for example, fighter A is doing a great job slipping punches, but is not throwing many punches himself, fighter B probably deserves the round. i.e.

-I don't penalize a guy for missing a punch.I give credit to a fighter landing one. Of course, the cleaner and harder the better.

-You should be scoring the round as you go. So if someone asks you at anytime during the round who you think is winning so far, you should be able to give an immediate answer.

-If you have to rely on punch stats (though they can be interesting) to judge a round, you did not watch the round close enough.

-You should note if you think a round was close enough to where it reasonably could have been scored the other way. ie a swing round. After the fight is over, see if there is anyway that if you gave the the fighter that you judged the loser could reasonably be scored the winner. If not, it is a robbery. If so, then it is simply a close fight in which you disagree with.

-I think Seamus had a good point about 10-8 rounds.Just because a fighter is knocked down doesn't mean it should automatically be a 10-8 round. A round should usually be 10-6 if there is 3 knockdowns unless there is some bizarre situation. (Such as fighter is dominating the first two minutes then gets knocked down three times in the last minute.)

-If a fighter completely dominates his opponent but does not score a knockdown, it should still be a 10-8 round.It is stupid when fighter A has a great first round and only wins it 10-9. Then fighter B
barely wins round two and the score is 19-19 after two rounds. You might as well be scoring the fight by the rounds method.

[gilgamesh]

One of the things I find ridiculous is a guy winning a rd can have his glove touch the deck, and he loses the rd 10-8 in the eyes of a lot of judges, At the same time, if a guy goes down twice it's 10-7, but 3 times is seldomly scored 10-6. I had this discussion once with a fight manager when we were discussing Paez v Grove !. Paez scored 3 knockdowns in the final rd and I said I scored it 10-6, to which the guy suddenly said "What ? I never heard of 10-6 rd.

There are seldom 10-6 rounds because almost always when a guy goes down 3 times in a round, the fight is going to be stopped.

The only 10-6 round I ever recall scoring was Pacquiao-Marquez 1, Round 1.

[MEISINGER]

One of the things I find ridiculous is a guy winning a rd can have his glove touch the deck, and he loses the rd 10-8 in the eyes of a lot of judges, At the same time, if a guy goes down twice it's 10-7, but 3 times is seldomly scored 10-6. I had this discussion once with a fight manager when we were discussing Paez v Grove !. Paez scored 3 knockdowns in the final rd and I said I scored it 10-6, to which the guy suddenly said "What ? I never heard of 10-6 rd.

There are seldom 10-6 rounds because almost always when a guy goes down 3 times in a round, the fight is going to be stopped.

The only 10-6 round I ever recall scoring was Pacquiao-Marquez 1, Round 1.

hearns-duran
i could see that as 10-0

tommy did everything but shoot roberto and give him cpr


no seriously 10-6 but fight should of been stopped

[Nile4000]

Effective Aggressiveness.