Hi there, I'm Mike Gales for Everlast Nutrition. In this video, I want to
take a look at how to score a boxing match for beginners. This is a perfect
topic right now because it seems that there's been some pretty controversial
decisions as of late. Don't worry we're not going to get super detailed or
too technical here but just enough to give beginners an idea of how the system
is supposed to work. This way, for the next big fight, you guys can grab a pen
and paper and you can score the fight round by round for yourselves.
Honestly, that does make the fights a little more entertaining and fun to watch.
In the recent past, amateur boxing was scored using a computer scoring system.
That was meant to tabulate the clean punches that were landed every round.
That has since been replaced with a 10-point must system. That is the
judging system that's been used for professional boxing bouts since the mid
20th century. That is going to be the focus of this particular video.
Before we get to the whole 10-point must system, let's first take a look at how the
judges are supposed to be judging each round. Basically there are four
criteria. The first being clean punching. That's pretty straightforward.
They're basically looking to see who's landing the cleaner shots.
Especially the harder and cleaner shots. Number two is effective
aggressiveness. That's a guy who's being aggressive. He also has to be
effective and not simply walking into a barrage of punches. Sometimes that
could be a little tricky to the untrained eye. A guy can still be
effectively aggressive without throwing a ton of shots. Sometimes you're going to
get a pressure fighter like the great Joe Frazier. He was always in an
aggressive posture and he's making his opponent continuously feel uncomfortable.
Even though he's not always throwing shots, he's causing his opponent to move
to get out of the way. Because of that, his aggression is always effective.
Next up on the list is ring generalship. That is the guy who's basically
controlling the ring and the pace of the fight. I like to describe this basically
as the guy that's imposing his style on the other guy. A little side note.
I love getting together with my boys and watching boxing. We often score the
fights round by round.I love to watch Bernard Hopkins fight.
Once in a while my friends will score a round for other guy. I ask him, why did you
just do that? Bernard Hopkins controlled that round masterfully.
Sure he didn't see in 20 million punches but he also didn't get hit either.
Most importantly, that round went exactly andI mean exactly how Bernard Hopkins
wanted it to go. His ring generalship is so good that he's always
able to make the other guys fight his fight.
He's like a puppet master in there and lo and behold, a few rounds later the
other guy is tiring and Bernard Hopkins starts to dominate. His ring
generalship is just that good. The fourth and final criteria is defense.
You could get a guy like "sweet pea" Pernell Whitaker, who is just so
defensively dominant that if he makes even great fighters look like novices
because they can't touch him. These are the four criteria that you're
supposed to be judging each round on. Clean, hard punching should carry the
most weight. Those are the ways to get points to win yourself the round.
You can also lose a point during the round due to a foul. Usually the
referee will give you a warning, but if that fighter persists to break the rules,
then the referee is going to notify the judges that they're to deduct one point.
These are the most common causes for the record take away a point.
The fighter has delivered an illegal blow. Like a low blow, a headbutt, a shoulder
butt, an elbow forearm or a kick. Hopefully we're not going to see a kick
in this summer super fight because it is boxing after all and you're supposed to
make contact with your fists. There's also holding and hitting hitting
behind the head or hitting an opponent when he's down. Then there are illegal
moves like wrestling, grappling, throwing and tripping. There's also not fighting.
The stuff like excessive clinching and holding, running, refusing to engage or
chronically throwing out your mouthpiece to stall for time. Of course there's
no biting, especially not to the ears. You now vaguely know
what causes fighters to lose points. You also know the four criteria that the
judges are looking for to decide a winner for that round.
Remember that's clean punching, effective aggressiveness, ring generalship and
defense. For a beginner, I have my own simpler method to score each round.
I like to think of it as an old-school video game, where we have two players.
They each have a health meter. That health meter is basically going to tell
me pretty much who's winning that round. Now right here, player two is landing
clean shots and he's also the aggressor. By the judging criteria he is winning
the round. Landing shot after shot, shot after shot. Then player one landed his
punches. Now at the end of the round, the question I ask myself, is right there
and then if I had to make a choice, who would I rather be? I would obviously
rather be player one. Even though player two has landed more
punches, player one landed the truly significant blows. Those blows
significantly drained player 2's health meter. So in that case, I'd rather be
player one. So I would score the round for him. Now back to the
10-point must system. That basically means that the winner of the round must,
yes he must receive 10 points. The only way he won't receive 10 points, is if he
commits a foul. So the judges must give 10 points to at least one fighter for
that round. Hence the 10-point must system.
Let's look at some common ways of scoring using a 10-point must system.
Remember the judges must award at least one fighter 10 points.
If a judge thought the round was dead even, he could give both fighters 10 points.
That's a 10/10 round. If there was a clear winner for that round then he
gives that fighter a 10 and the loser a 9. so that's a 10-9 round. If there was a
knockdown during that round, that fighter usually automatically wins the
round. That's one point for winning the round and 1 point for the knockdown.
So that's a 10-8 round. You may also see a 10-8 round even without a knockdown.
That's only if the fighter was supremely dominant but that's pretty rare. If there
are two knockdowns in a round, then that's a point for each knockdown and a
point for the round. So that's a 10-7 round. On the rare occasion, if there's
three knockdowns and the three knockdown rule is not in effect, you get the
idea, that's a 10-6 round. Finally you may have a fighter who wins the round 10-9
but let's say he also commits a foul and loses a point. Well in that case, now you
have a 9-9 round. At the end of every round, the judges
turn over their scorecards. If there is no stoppage and the fight goes the
distance, then the score cards will be read and a decision of who won the fight
will be revealed by the ring announcer. Let's quickly look at some common
decisions. A unanimous decision is when all three judges call the fight for the same fighter.
A split decision is you have one judge scoring for one fighter, one judge
scoring for the other fighter and then the third and final judge sides with one
fighter to break the tie. So that's two out of three judges for the same fighter.
A majority decision is when you have two of the three judges score the vote for
the same fighter while the third judge scores about a draw. Then you have a draw
which is a tie. You can have one judge scores the fight for one
fighter, a second judge scores the fight for the other fighter and the third
judge scores the fight a draw. You can have a majority draw where two of the
three judges score the fight a draw. Next, just to give you an example, let's go
over the scoring of a six round fight. Here we're going to have a six round
fight with Mike Gales versus Michel Gales.
Yeah my mom used to call me Michael. Anyway, Mike versus Michael. You can
get these type of scorecards online for free, just print them up and use them.
Round one. Mike clearly wins this round with clean and effective punching.
So at the end of the round it is a 10-9 round for Mike. Round two it starts out
like round one. Mike is boxing well but ouch he walks into a left hook and
hits the canvas. He's up at the count of seven and he finishes the round.
Well, that's a 10-8 round. One point for the round and one point for the
knockdown. So a 10-8 round for Michael. Round three.
Michael jumps all over Mike to finish him off. He's overzealous and now he
gets caught with a huge uppercut and gets floored. He barely makes it up
before the count. Mike patiently stalks him and drops him again at the end of
the round with a body shot. Michael's pretty tough and he struggles
back up to his feet and just barely finishes the round.
Now you have two knockdowns in that round. So for Mike it was a 10-7 round.
Round four. Michael now is much more cautious. He works well from
outside behind his jab. He's just pumping that jab in Mike's face. He tries
to dig Mike to the body a few times. He catches him low the ref warns him.
"buddy keep them up". 20 seconds later, in the heat of an exchange, one of Mike's
punches goes low below the belt. This time the ref deducts a point
from Michael for hitting the family jewels.
Michael wins the round 10-9 but that low blow is going to cost him.
It's really a 9-9 round. Round five. It's been like a Rocky movie,
going back and forth. Both fighters look exhausted. Not too much is
happening. You can't really decide a winner for that round. That round was pretty
even. So we're going to score this round 10/10 an even round. We move on to
the sixth and final round. Mike has just never seemed to fully recover after
being hit to the groin. That low blow seems to have just snapped all of his
energy. Michael out works him to win the final round. Michael wins the
final round 10-9
You can see at the far end, boxes on either side, we've been keeping track of
the net points. That's what we're going to use to declare a winner by
decision. On this card we have Mike winning the fight 56-55. So it was a
close fight and you can just see how the difference of a point here or there can
really shape the decision. For example, if that even round was scored for Michael
then we had a draw or if the referee didn't take a point from Michael then we
also had a draw. Sometimes those super close rounds where there isn't a clear victor
can really impact the fight, because the other judges may disagree with you.
Judging can be a little subjective, so those close rounds sometimes can sway a
decision one way or the other. One final note is that here we scored a six round
fight but you can scored eight, ten or twelve round fight the exact same way.
At the end of the fight, you just add up all the points together and voila you have
your decision. Now that you basically know how the 10-point must system works,
the next time you get together with your friends to watch the big fight, you can
print up up some score cards. Then grab a pen and score the fight for yourselves.
Sometimes you're going to be surprised that scoring the fight round by
round, sometimes gives you a different perspective of the fight, rather than
scoring the entire fight as a whole. Anyway try and score the next big fight
for yourself. Then compare your scores with your friends and with the
official judges scorecard. You're going to find that it does make the
evening a little more fun and entertaining. This has been Mike Gales
for Everlast Nutrition. If you like these videos and please click below to
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