BoxRec

I've never really given this much thought until today when I re-watched the first Louis-Brion fight from 1950 at Chicago Stadium. I thought the Argentine kid did well enough to get a narrow points win or a draw. The scores were 2 judges had it 55-45 and referee Frank Gilmer had it 56-44. All for Louis. What kind of system were they using in a 10-round fight? I've seen scores like this elsewhere but they don't make sense.

Most states belonging to the National Boxing Association (est. 1921) used the ten-point divisible system from the mid-1920s to the early 1950s. This system involved dividing ten points between the two boxers in each round. Thus, an even round was scored by giving five points to each boxer. A round won by the narrowest of margins saw six points go to the winner of the round and four points to the loser. Rounds won by wider margins were scored 7-3, 8-2, 9-1, and (in very rare cases) 10-0.

hhascup wrote:Most states belonging to the National Boxing Association (est. 1921) used the ten-point divisible system from the mid-1920s to the early 1950s. This system involved dividing ten points between the two boxers in each round. Thus, an even round was scored by giving five points to each boxer. A round won by the narrowest of margins saw six points go to the winner of the round and four points to the loser. Rounds won by wider margins were scored 7-3, 8-2, 9-1, and (in very rare cases) 10-0.

Why did this scoring not stay in use? Seems pretty good to me

Here's another scoring system that was used:

California used the “Australian” system from 1940 to 1956. This system is similar to the ten-point divisible system, except that eleven points, rather than ten, are divided between the boxers in each round. (Hence, there are no even rounds.) A boxer must be at least three points ahead at the end of the bout to win the vote of an official. The Calif. Commission experimented with various systems until 1961, when the “Wisconsin four points” system was adopted. In this system, the loser of a round receives no points and the winner from one point to four, depending on the margin of victory.

Wonder who the Einstein was that finally invented the present 10 point must system? Using that old 10-point divisible system I can see a lot of messed up math and wrong decisions. Some of these judges can barely count to 10.

Cap wrote:Wonder who the Einstein was that finally invented the present 10 point must system? Using that old 10-point divisible system I can see a lot of messed up math and wrong decisions. Some of these judges can barely count to 10.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was apparently the first state to use the ten-point “must” system, in which ten points are given to the winner of the round and nine or less to the loser, depending, again, on the margin of victory, with an even round scored 10-10. Massachusetts was using this system in the early 1940s.