BoxRec

With the Beijing Games a little more than a year away, it appears there will be changes to the way Olympic boxing matches are judged.

The International Amateur Boxing Association, which governs Olympic bouts, plans to scrap its controversial electronic scoring system in response to International Olympic Committee demands to make fights more transparent and harder to manipulate.
In the current system, three of five judges are required to press a button within the same second for a punch to be registered. Under the proposed reforms, each judge would count blows separately, with the highest and lowest of the five judges' scores thrown out.

In addition, the cards would be open, so officials and fans can see how each judge scores a fight.
"This caused a lot of debate," Gerhard Heiberg, chairman of AIBA's reform committee, said Saturday. "But it works really well in ski jumping. Why shouldn't it work as well in boxing?"

The committee's proposal must be approved at a meeting of AIBA's 195 member countries during the 2007 world championships in Chicago in October.
If it goes through and the IOC agrees, the new system will be used at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Heiberg, also an IOC executive board member, said the current system was open to manipulation and misunderstanding. He added that the proposed system already is being tested.

Sounds like a better system. Having to have them press buttons within half a second of one another is a crap system, and means too many shots don't get counted at all.

The system definetly requires and overhaul,

Old bones Ian wrote: "But it works really well in ski jumping. Why shouldn't it work as well in boxing?"

Brilliant. Up there with, "Hey Elsie. The dog really loves this new Pedigree Chum. Why doesn't the hamster like it?"

jomothepure wrote:

Old bones Ian wrote: "But it works really well in ski jumping. Why shouldn't it work as well in boxing?"

Brilliant. Up there with, "Hey Elsie. The dog really loves this new Pedigree Chum. Why doesn't the hamster like it?"

Why don't they use the same system as the pro game or does that just produce too many draws in 4 round fights. I'm glad their changing the system though the curent one discourages throwing combinations.

As long as it still counts a really hard clean shot no more than bullshit pitty-pat, it's still going to be a crock.

I absolutely detest Olympic scoring, even in the rare cases where the judges aren't ultranationalistic paid-off stooges.

J-C wrote:Why don't they use the same system as the pro game or does that just produce too many draws in 4 round fights. I'm glad their changing the system though the curent one discourages throwing combinations.

Too open to corruption.

I also think that the new system is an improvement. Like you, I expect we'll see more reward for fighters who throw more punches.

would it be an idea for the judges to just count punches landed by just one boxer, say have 3 judges on each boxer. as this would make the counting easier. just a thought

I'd also like them to do away with "outclassed" rule. Stoppages and knockouts are, and always have been, a totally legitimate way of winning a bout and deprives a boxer trailing on points the opportunity to turn things around via the short route.