Comments on: Attrocious boxing scoring on display in Beijing

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:01:45 +0000

For what its worth, just about everything I’ve watched so far; judo, boxing, wrestling, etc., has had bad officiating. But the boxing has probably been the absolute worst.

By: bk

bk — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:45:27 +0000

“Unfortunately, I have no idea how to even start writing about the ‘amateur boxing’ has been put on display at these Olympic games.”

Yipes.

By: Alan Conceicao

Alan Conceicao — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:02:00 +0000

To kinda make this as broad as I can without giving away too much, the problems with the 20 point system are the same as they are with the 10 point must in pro boxing. You can easily argue that the scoring credits “effective aggression” because it counts punches. The problem, again, is not that punches are being counted, its the fashion in which they are. No one was up in arms in the boxing community after the Pan Ams or World Championships because it was clear that the fights were being scored fairly. When one guy gets RSCOed in the whole Olympics, there is something wrong there.

By: Fluyid

Fluyid — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:57:08 +0000

I believe I wrote “effective aggressiveness,” which I know for a fact was one of the criterion at one point. You wrote something different than what I wrote, so I apologize for appearing to disagree head-on with that statement.

By: Alan Conceicao

Alan Conceicao — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:54:36 +0000

I represented the U.S. international boxing competitions twice in the 80s. I have trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was runner-up in the national Junior Olympics one year, and got a bronze in another year. I sort of feel like I have an idea of what I’m talking about.

I’m definitely not trying to get in any prolonged disagreement with you, but I’ll stand by what I wrote and stand by my opinion that I’m neither uninformed on the topic nor a liar.

So, what part of the 20 point system rewarded effective punching?

By: Fluyid

Fluyid — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:41:17 +0000

“People that tell you that are liars or don’t know what they are talking about”

I have to plead NOT GUILTY to both charges.

I represented the U.S. IN international boxing competitions twice in the 80s I have trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was runner-up in the national Junior Olympics one year, and got a bronze in another year. I sort of feel like I have an idea of what I’m talking about.

I’m definitely not trying to get in any prolonged disagreement with you, but I’ll stand by what I wrote and stand by my opinion that I’m neither uninformed on the topic nor a liar.

By: Alan Conceicao

Alan Conceicao — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:35:17 +0000

Amateur boxing has never been about nebulous effective punching or ring generalship. People that tell you that are liars or don’t know what they are talking about. As for the system not providing “real boxing”, the majority of pro stars are still guys with significant amateur careers and often Olympic success. There are other reasons why we don’t see many star making performances (a la Michael Spinks). For one, there are no Michael Spinks, or even Leon Spinks in the US amateur system anymore. That sorta happens when you’re the one system not publically subsidizing amateur boxers.

By: Michaelthebox

Michaelthebox — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:24:03 +0000

The scoring is an embarrassing clusterfuck.

Early on in the olympics, I actually thought they were scoring by round, because I kept seeing the boxers drill each other and no point was being awarded.

By: b.w.

b.w. — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:23:48 +0000

this is exactly why when dana white was asked aboutt mma being in the olympics and he sadi”i would love to see that before i die” and i though to myself “i wouldnt”. the iocc would make a mockery out of the current mma rules and would change the whole look. i remember that jones fight and havent watched olympic boxing since. why bother? i quit watching them all together since they started letting the nba,and the nhl and other pro atheletes compete. that wasnt for the good of the games, it was all about the money. greed still plays a big part in the olympics. there are alot of smaller countries that will pay their amatuer boxers alot of money to medal in the games and get tons of endorsement money, yet still get to keep their amatuer status. when will it stop. will the start letting pro boxers, mlb, the nfl start competing. HA! what about golf, im sure the iocc would love to have tiger woods compete. lol!

By: Jason Bennett

Jason Bennett — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:22:09 +0000

What! A boxing scandal!!

I can’t help but laugh at the outrage and surprise regarding the current shenanigans around the ’sport’ of boxing. It has been a farce for many many years and anyone kidding themselves need to do a few simple google searches find out.

For me, I completely dropped boxing in 1995 after the George Foreman controversies: the WBA stripping him of their title for not fighting mandatory #1 challenger, followed by a horrible decision win over Axel Schultz (one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen) and refusing the mandatory rematch, which stripped his other title away.

The fix has been in for a very long time and I just couldn’t keep pretending it was legitimate.