<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: Byrd on a Wire
subtitle: A Ridiculous Scorecard, Just Another Day in the Life of a Boxing Fan 
header-img: "img/start.jpg"
tags: ["", ""]
shortlink: 
image: http://endlesspint.com/gallery/2017/gabf/gabf16_ci_impact.png
sideof: 
---


## Intro

[Moretti was the concern, Byrd the unpredictable one, and Trella the one who flubbed round seven. ](https://nypost.com/2017/09/16/one-judge-could-tip-scale-toward-alvarez-in-bout-vs-golovkin/)

Ah boxing, the gift that keeps on giving. Aside from the fantastic feats of athleticism and inspiring displays of will, not to overlook the lunatic level of coverage required to enter a ring, we have the sideshow to appreciate. The sideshow frequently makes an in-ring cameo ("[Fan Man](https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/11/6/5072846/20-years-ago-fan-man-crashed-bowe-holyfield-ii)"; [Bowe/Golota riot](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2520907-recalling-the-night-riddick-bowe-and-andrew-golota-caused-a-riot-in-new-york); [Mayweather/Judah brawl](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/apr/10/boxing.gdnsport3)) but for the most part takes place on either end of the official bout. Any long time fan of the sport can speak to the unease felt when a tight fight has come to a close and the decision is up in the air. Will their fighter come out victorious? Did their favorite do enough to convince the judges? 

Close fight or not what turns the stomachs of fans more than a tight fight are the scores that routinely get turned in which bear no resemblance to reality. In instances such as these, depending on your experience, cynicism, and general mood, you cannot help but feel that you have witnessed a fraud. You always know this, but the feeling of outrage is calibrated by the aforementioned influences. Not a year goes by without a high profile bout showcasing this issue. Contested decisions in close fights where more than a handful of 50/50 rounds could be pointed to for supporting a reasonably wide range of opinions is one thing. However, far too often the numbers add up to a fantasy that no other spectator was privy to but to one, or more, of the three people whose opinions actually matter, the judges sitting ringside vested with the responsibility of determining the official result.

Page2

Boxing has a long, interesting, and infuriating history of faulty, wrong, and incompetent decisions. I can only assume, both with a shake of the head and a chuckle, that this will continue for the foreseeable future. It is a laugh thrown out to keep from getting upset. It is also a laugh that is authentic, bursting up in the face of absurdity. There are fights, and more specifically rounds, that are difficult to score. That goes for any experienced viewer and creating a consensus grows more difficult when introducing additional critics who assuredly have different criteria for determining the effectiveness of fighters and the styles and tactics implemented. It is inevitable to have disagreements when we leave decisions open to subjective criteria and observations. I am not proposing the removal of this subjective aspect, though I fully endorse available measures that might provide a more clear reading of reality. Instant replay should at least be available in between rounds to determine whether or not a fighter‘s knee or glove touched the canvas, something that would normally be considered a knockdown, or if fighters did in fact foul each other or have their legs/feet tangled, unfairly leading to a knockdown. These are clear examples where we can more closely approach objective standards of what actually happened. Naturally, the final decisions would still be in the eyes of the beholder but even there we can introduce multiple pairs of eyes and a majority vote, much like judges' score cards themselves, to determine the most likely thing to have transpired. 

Page3

Leaving aside the tough to catch, in the moment, exceptional instances fight scoring is a more regular activity that can use some deeper interogation. At the very least, the judges’ performances and history can be more clearly evaluated.

The fight game is brutal, corrupt, and predatory. As in so many multi-million dollar operations the people at the bottom get taken advantage of. This appears to be the way of the world but is no less relevant to consider, especially in a profession that requires participants to take physical abuse and brain damage for the sake of others entertainment. Defending boxing becomes a bit more difficult each year. This is not quite [the cigarette industry of the 50s](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879177/) since boxing's deleterious effects have always been clear, both in the ring and years later, but modern instrumentation is measuring ever more finely the physical toll and decline in life expectancy as a result of being exposed to repeated head trauma. This not complete ignorance of the consequences has in small part blunted the backlash to date. Certainly being less popular, not offering a centralized league to target, and perhaps being more difficult to identify, gather and group former fighters presents logistical hurdles that the NFL inconveniently has to deal with. This lack of centralization has at least made the charade of denying the risks less necessary.

A bad judgment adds one more, unnecessary, impediment to a professional fighter’s chance of making a decent living. 

Page4

The opportunity cost rises evermore as a result of a setback. The financial stakes grow exponentially the closer boxers get to network and premium television fights. At those levels winning almost guarantees future bouts, perhaps additional screen time, and eventually career high checks in the seven figures, not the tens of thousands of dollars. 

Beyond the fighter their family suffers. Most people get into fighting for the same reasons we each get into our line of work. It is the best way of making a buck given our skills and opportunities. Thankfully, many of us do not have to rely on our ability to slip, take, and deliver a punch in order to cover the rent. For others this approach is a way to make a supplemental income and possibly a living. There may one day be a better general awareness of the kind of money given to all but the famous boxers. Perhaps boxers will band together or a promotional company will see it as a competitive advantage to do some sort of revenue sharing amongst their stable of fighters. Your wishful guess is as good as mine. But if there is going to be something to divvy up then the fight game will need as many eyeballs on screens and butts in the seats to ensure a stream of revenue to split. Bad judgments have the corrupting force of turning away potential fans and even, over time, making lifelong fans fall out of love. This may not be as physically tragic a penalty as the one the fighters pay but the health of the sport depends on the people on both sides of the ropes.

Page5

Motivation: initially the GGG/Canelo fight but it is more appropriate to mark this out as the straw that broke the complacent camel's back. Just a few months earlier one judge’s card in the Pacquiao/Vargas fight had nearly woken me from my slumber but at the very least planted the seed for the current approach. After a lifetime‘s worth of incompetent, corrupt, questionable, and best case, controversial decisions I was not too riled up.

Methodology: grab the fight scoring history of each of the three judges and compare their cards with those of their respective colleagues on a fight-by-fight basis over their career. This was to look at the degree of divergence, consistency, and how often they were the lone voice in the wild.

Going into the fight the GGG camp was concerned about Moretti, Byrd made the headlines, but Trella was the one who flubbed by giving round seven to Canelo. Had this round been flipped on his card we still would have had a terrible scorecard from Byrd but at least we would have had a definitive outcome, one that most appear to believe would have been correct, the judging would not have stolen the enthusiasm and attention to such an extent from a hard fought fight, and given the sport a chance to showcase its quality and not the sideshow. [The great irony is that the terrible card is ultimately inconsequential to the result

Page6

This one terrible card which could have been deemed moot by all three judges scoring round seven unanimously for Golovkin reminded me of another terrible card. The 114-114 draw in Mayweather/Canelo (Canelo again, hmm) when most viewers would have been hard pressed to find two rounds to give Canelo, let alone half the fight. Like I said, there is a history of this sort of thing going back over 100 years.

As I age I lose my innocent attraction to sport, the docile acceptance of its importance or ability to say anything meaningful. I still see the signs, the storylines, the metaphors claiming greater appreciation but they no longer have the same draw. Whether through negligence or active disdain at a distraction seen as more appropriate for a child I have shed my sporting interests. Perhaps if I were a gambling man I would have cared longer, having an excuse and some reimbursement for my viewing vigilance. Instead, I let my enthusiasms fall away like used tickets. This has happened across the board but for two sports. I remain interested in men’s tennis because of witnessing possibly the greatest generation and player [DFW on Federer link] to have ever done it. Boxing has also endured, despite itself, because when other sports use metaphor, it is boxing imagery and language they use, for boxing in itself is more primal, serious, and natural than all other sports and is able to carry its own appeal with just a little bit of help from its participants. Alongside the individual tragedies of boxing, we have the added casualty of it no longer being one of the top sports, able to highlight the magnificent stories of overcoming. However when it’s protagonists capture our imagination they are reimbursed more handsomely than any other athletes, betraying our primal attraction to it and its narratives.

Page 7
Judges are subjective, judging is a subjective act, but we have to start somewhere and using the scorecards of professionals is a good place to do so. If nothing else it will help raise issues, concerns, and objections to relying solely on or only the current state of cards that’s helping spur innovative ways of looking at the problem moving forward. Some of these avenues, in embryo, have been touched on here: punch stats, large number/if you were input. But even in these we are dealing with elements of subjectivity. The input of several thousand Twitter users is easy enough to point at, but can we all agree on what a thrown punch looks like versus a feint and whether we should count the latter as one of the former? Even landed punches can get tricky when you have skilled defenders like <NAME> and <NAME> slipping and going with punches. Something worth mentioning since it is a skill Canelo has been clearly working on and can be seen in fine display during some of the exchanges, especially on instant replay [FN: though that is not what I had in mind when I suggested technology be used to reevaluate the things that did happen. I would think it a step too far at this point to readjust judges cards in between rounds based on clarifications of whether or not punches were slipped.] Punches thrown and connected also do not tell you outright about their impact. In the absence of an opponent's reaction, whether a knee buckle or fall to the canvas, we have to make our best estimate as to the damage being dished out.

Page 8
This is something that comes in to play even with experienced judges, journalists, and viewers when assessing body shots. A fighter basically has to carry the reputation of being a good body puncher into the fight in order to get credit for the work from the opening bell onward and not rely on the spectators catching on midway through the fight.
<commit_msg>Update 2018-02-05-byrd-on-a-wire.md<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: Byrd on a Wire
subtitle: A Ridiculous Scorecard, Just Another Day in the Life of a Boxing Fan 
header-img: "img/start.jpg"
tags: ["", ""]
shortlink: 
image: http://endlesspint.com/gallery/2017/gabf/gabf16_ci_impact.png
sideof: 
---


## Intro

[Moretti was the concern, Byrd the unpredictable one, and Trella the one who flubbed round seven. ](https://nypost.com/2017/09/16/one-judge-could-tip-scale-toward-alvarez-in-bout-vs-golovkin/)

Ah boxing, the gift that keeps on giving. Aside from the fantastic feats of athleticism and inspiring displays of will, not to overlook the lunatic level of coverage required to enter a ring, we have the sideshow to appreciate. The sideshow frequently makes an in-ring cameo ("[Fan Man](https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/11/6/5072846/20-years-ago-fan-man-crashed-bowe-holyfield-ii)"; [Bowe/Golota riot](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2520907-recalling-the-night-riddick-bowe-and-andrew-golota-caused-a-riot-in-new-york); [Mayweather/Judah brawl](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/apr/10/boxing.gdnsport3)) but for the most part takes place on either end of the official bout. Any long time fan of the sport can speak to the unease felt when a tight fight has come to a close and the decision is up in the air. Will their fighter come out victorious? Did their favorite do enough to convince the judges? 

Close fight or not what turns the stomachs of fans more than a tight fight are the scores that routinely get turned in which bear no resemblance to reality. In instances such as these, depending on your experience, cynicism, and general mood, you cannot help but feel that you have witnessed a fraud. You always know this, but the feeling of outrage is calibrated by the aforementioned influences. Not a year goes by without a high profile bout showcasing this issue. Contested decisions in close fights where more than a handful of 50/50 rounds could be pointed to for supporting a reasonably wide range of opinions is one thing. However, far too often the numbers add up to a fantasy that no other spectator was privy to but to one, or more, of the three people whose opinions actually matter, the judges sitting ringside vested with the responsibility of determining the official result.

Page2

Boxing has a long, interesting, and infuriating history of faulty, wrong, and incompetent decisions. I can only assume, both with a shake of the head and a chuckle, that this will continue for the foreseeable future. It is a laugh thrown out to keep from getting upset. It is also a laugh that is authentic, bursting up in the face of absurdity. There are fights, and more specifically rounds, that are difficult to score. That goes for any experienced viewer and creating a consensus grows more difficult when introducing additional critics who assuredly have different criteria for determining the effectiveness of fighters and the styles and tactics implemented. It is inevitable to have disagreements when we leave decisions open to subjective criteria and observations. I am not proposing the removal of this subjective aspect, though I fully endorse available measures that might provide a more clear reading of reality. Instant replay should at least be available in between rounds to determine whether or not a fighter‘s knee or glove touched the canvas, something that would normally be considered a knockdown, or if fighters did in fact foul each other or have their legs/feet tangled, unfairly leading to a knockdown. These are clear examples where we can more closely approach objective standards of what actually happened. Naturally, the final decisions would still be in the eyes of the beholder but even there we can introduce multiple pairs of eyes and a majority vote, much like judges' score cards themselves, to determine the most likely thing to have transpired. 

Page3

Leaving aside the tough to catch, in the moment, exceptional instances fight scoring is a more regular activity that can use some deeper interogation. At the very least, the judges’ performances and history can be more clearly evaluated.

The fight game is brutal, corrupt, and predatory. As in so many multi-million dollar operations the people at the bottom get taken advantage of. This appears to be the way of the world but is no less relevant to consider, especially in a profession that requires participants to take physical abuse and brain damage for the sake of others entertainment. Defending boxing becomes a bit more difficult each year. This is not quite [the cigarette industry of the 50s](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879177/) since boxing's deleterious effects have always been clear, both in the ring and years later, but modern instrumentation is measuring ever more finely the physical toll and decline in life expectancy as a result of being exposed to repeated head trauma. This not complete ignorance of the consequences has in small part blunted the backlash to date. Certainly being less popular, not offering a centralized league to target, and perhaps being more difficult to identify, gather and group former fighters presents logistical hurdles that the NFL inconveniently has to deal with. This lack of centralization has at least made the charade of denying the risks less necessary.



Page4

A bad judgment adds one more, unnecessary, impediment to a professional fighter’s chance of making a decent living. The opportunity cost rises evermore as a result of a setback. The financial stakes grow exponentially the closer boxers get to network and premium television fights. At those levels winning almost guarantees future bouts, perhaps additional screen time, and eventually career high checks in the seven figures, not the tens of thousands of dollars. 

Beyond the fighter their family suffers. Most people get into fighting for the same reasons we each get into our line of work. It is the best way of making a buck given our skills and opportunities. Thankfully, many of us do not have to rely on our ability to slip, take, and deliver a punch in order to cover the rent. For others this approach is a way to make a supplemental income and possibly a living. There may one day be a better general awareness of [the kind of money given to all but the famous boxers](https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/8/23/12512178/why-do-boxers-make-more-than-mma-fighters). Perhaps boxers will band together or a promotional company will see it as a competitive advantage to do some sort of revenue sharing amongst their stable of fighters. Your wishful guess is as good as mine. But if there is going to be something to divvy up then the fight game will need as many eyeballs on screens and butts in the seats to ensure a stream of revenue to split. Bad judgments have the corrupting force of turning away potential fans and even, over time, making lifelong fans fall out of love. This may not be as physically tragic a penalty as the one the fighters pay but the health of the sport depends on the people on both sides of the ropes.

Page5

Motivation: initially the GGG/Canelo fight but it is more appropriate to mark this out as the straw that broke the complacent camel's back. Just a few months earlier one judge’s card in the Pacquiao/Vargas fight had nearly woken me from my slumber but at the very least planted the seed for the current approach. After a lifetime‘s worth of incompetent, corrupt, questionable, and best case, controversial decisions I was not too riled up.

Methodology: grab the fight scoring history of each of the three judges and compare their cards with those of their respective colleagues on a fight-by-fight basis over their career. This was to look at the degree of divergence, consistency, and how often they were the lone voice in the wild.

Going into the fight the GGG camp was concerned about Moretti, Byrd made the headlines, but Trella was the one who flubbed by giving round seven to Canelo. Had this round been flipped on his card we still would have had a terrible scorecard from Byrd but at least we would have had a definitive outcome, one that most appear to believe would have been correct, the judging would not have stolen the enthusiasm and attention to such an extent from a hard fought fight, and given the sport a chance to showcase its quality and not the sideshow. [The great irony is that the terrible card is ultimately inconsequential to the result]

Page6

This one terrible card which could have been deemed moot by all three judges scoring round seven unanimously for Golovkin reminded me of another terrible card. The 114-114 draw in Mayweather/Canelo (Canelo again, hmm) when most viewers would have been hard pressed to find two rounds to give Canelo, let alone half the fight. Like I said, there is a history of this sort of thing going back over 100 years.

As I age I lose my innocent attraction to sport, the docile acceptance of its importance or ability to say anything meaningful. I still see the signs, the storylines, the metaphors claiming greater appreciation but they no longer have the same draw. Whether through negligence or active disdain at a distraction seen as more appropriate for a child I have shed my sporting interests. Perhaps if I were a gambling man I would have cared longer, having an excuse and some reimbursement for my viewing vigilance. Instead, I let my enthusiasms fall away like used tickets. This has happened across the board but for two sports. I remain interested in men’s tennis because of witnessing possibly the greatest generation and [player](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html) to have ever done it. Boxing has also endured, despite itself, because when other sports use metaphor, it is boxing imagery and language they use, for boxing in itself is more primal, serious, and natural than all other sports and is able to carry its own appeal with just a little bit of help from its participants. Alongside the individual tragedies of boxing, we have the added casualty of it no longer being one of the top sports, able to highlight the magnificent stories of overcoming. However when it’s protagonists capture our imagination they are reimbursed more handsomely than any other athletes, betraying our primal attraction to it and its narratives.

Page 7
Judges are subjective, judging is a subjective act, but we have to start somewhere and using the scorecards of professionals is a good place to do so. If nothing else it will help raise issues, concerns, and objections to relying solely on or only the current state of cards that’s helping spur innovative ways of looking at the problem moving forward. Some of these avenues, in embryo, have been touched on here: punch stats, large number/if you were input. But even in these we are dealing with elements of subjectivity. The input of several thousand Twitter users is easy enough to point at, but can we all agree on what a thrown punch looks like versus a feint and whether we should count the latter as one of the former? Even landed punches can get tricky when you have skilled defenders like <NAME> and <NAME> slipping and going with punches. Something worth mentioning since it is a skill Canelo has been clearly working on and can be seen in fine display during some of the exchanges, especially on instant replay [FN: though that is not what I had in mind when I suggested technology be used to reevaluate the things that did happen. I would think it a step too far at this point to readjust judges cards in between rounds based on clarifications of whether or not punches were slipped.] Punches thrown and connected also do not tell you outright about their impact. In the absence of an opponent's reaction, whether a knee buckle or fall to the canvas, we have to make our best estimate as to the damage being dished out.

Page 8
This is something that comes in to play even with experienced judges, journalists, and viewers when assessing body shots. A fighter basically has to carry the reputation of being a good body puncher into the fight in order to get credit for the work from the opening bell onward and not rely on the spectators catching on midway through the fight.

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