OPEN SCORING SYSTEMS

The disappointing result of Evander Holyfield vs Lennox Lewis last March has created many controversy of the necessity of clean and transparency in judgment.

In every boxing match, all of boxing aspects like the boxers, coaches, audience, etc. are not involved in the scoring. The promoters who usually have the biggest gain in a match are often accused to interfere the result of a fight. Just like in Holyfield-Lewis, Don King was accused as the most responsible man for the bad draw result. Although King has stated that he did not do it, but still the public accuses him for doing that.

To prevent this, the WBC (World Boxing Council) and WBA (World Boxing Association), the oldest boxing organizations, have proposed new procedures. These procedures support the clean judgment and transparency.

As written in Nando Net, the WBC has proposed their new procedure of announcing judges’ points after the fourth and eight rounds of title fights. They hope they can involve everybody to judge the judges’ judgment to avoid controversy.

The WBA has gone further by proposing the "Open Scoring System". Points will be announced after each round.

The WBC President has announced to implement the new procedure in the middleweight fight between Hassine Cherifi (France) and Keith Holmes (USA) in Washington on April 24.

The WBA has also announced to apply the "Open Scoring System" in the Shamba Mitchell vs Reggie Green for Mitchell’s WBA Super Lightweight title on the same card as the Cherifi-Holmes fight.

This is really a good news to keep boxing alive among us.

On the other hands, all people involved in a title fight must have prepared for everything with this transparent judgment. Protests and maybe boycotts done by boxers or coaches will be faced much more often than before.

JEFF
May, 1999

My Previous Articles

SIGN OR READ MY GUEST BOOK BRAVENET GUESTBOOKS HALL OF FAME

WEMMASTERS: Click this image, and you'll get 20,000 hits per day. WHAT AN EXPLOSION!