How do you score a round in pro-boxing?

you judge it on

ring generalship- who controlls the fight
aggresion- whos throwing more
defence- should negate aggresion but very rarely does
punches landed
cleaner shots

 

In each round you should look for 4 things.... Clean effective punching, effective aggresion, ring generalship and defense. They all count equally, though many judges use aggresion as the tie breaker if pushed. If a guy is ahead in a round in 3 of the 4 he gets the round, if its 2-2 the judge must consider by how much each guy won in each department. For instance if a judge thinks fighter A won on defense and ring generalship narrowly, but B won on punching narrowly and aggression clearly he will give the round to B.

When considering clean effective punching yes a powerful shot does count for more than a light jab. Despite what some here would have you believe you cant just count shots and rounds dont just go to the guy that landed most clean shots.

Calzaghe-Hopkins is the classic example. Calzaghe landed few clean shots in the fight but was clearly the aggressor and ring general in just about every round. By giving away 2 of the 4 criteria clearly Hopkins had to beat Joe even more clearly on the other 2 criteria to win rounds, hence rounds where Hopkins landed more clean shots than Joe were correctly scored to Joe.

Pressuring while not landing cleanly of course does not help you in the clean effective punching part of the scoring but it does score well in ring generalship and effective aggression if the guy putting on the pressure is clearly the one controlling the pace and distance of the fight, as again was well demonstrated in Hopkins-Calzaghe.

 

However I'd like to make a note - I agree with what Liam says about scoring, but sometimes, if a round is very close, and you're not sure which way to go - one way to think is - which fighter will be happier with that round, which fighter will have actually come away to their stool more pleased with the outcome of that round (not in cases where the guy was lucky to survive - in close even rounds)...

It's something I've used at times to differentiate a round - I'm not a big fan of scoring even rounds unless necessary.

 

Judges are actually told to avoid scoring rounds even, I should have mentioned that. As I say if its close most judges seem to go with the aggressor though they should consider all 4 facets equally, they dont seem to. Its also worth noting defense seems to be the least regarded of the 4 by judges, though it should have equal weight.

If a judge sees even the slightest advantage to one fighter they are oblidged to score it to the fighter they think has the advantage.

 

I'd agree with that if a camera from their angle was also available. Remember that the judges sit with different views of the fight to each other and to the TV. What often looks to be odd scoring by a judge is explained by the fact they simply couldnt see what the TV or other judges saw.

 

judges nowdays suck.

 

& if you have a hard time scoring a round, ask yourself which fighter would you rather be at the moment, and the fighter you ick, you give the round to them.

 

Bump for the benefit of Dinamita... perhaps you'd like to add your thoughts.

 

Ask Eugenia Williams

 

The way I learned from my father down in PR. I divide the round in minutes. You have to see who dominate 2 out of 3 minutes. Unless something mayor happens like a knockdown or a real beat down in the last minute or something like that.

 

Hopefully not in that order, though.

I get very upset when people start using words like 'ring generalship' and 'aggression'. Usage of these terms is usually synonamous with idiotic scorings like Oscar beat PBF or Calzaghe dominating Hopkins.

Boxing should be scored by looking at punches landed! Simple as that. The cleaner the better. When two fighters are close in the amount of punches landed, agression and 'generalship' should be used only then to seperate them.

 

It basically comes down to who did the most damage in the round more or less.

 

I have no problem with a scoring emphasis on agression as long as it's intelligent, effective, agression. Of course if it's intelligent and effective agression, it will include clean, hard punching.