Columnist Dean Juipe: Open scoring? Don’t count on it happening

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003 | 10:11 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Go to any sporting event in the world and you will almost always know who's ahead at any given time. The scores are posted and are there for all to see.

Except in boxing.

And, calls to overhaul the system aside, that isn't likely to change, particularly within the foreseeable future.

This is a subject that comes up every now and again, and it has moved to the front burner since Shane Mosley's razor-thin decision win against Oscar De La Hoya two months ago at the MGM caught many in the audience by surprise.

Boxing critics jump on the issue and boxing fans wonder why this particular sport, this single sport, refuses to let either the participants or fans know who's leading while the fight is in progress.

Why? They continually ask. Why not let the fighters and the crowd see where the fight stands in the judges' eyes as it is unfolding?

Marc Ratner has the reasons why, and, while he's open to further discussion on the subject, he's fairly sure the Nevada State Athletic Commission is not about to flip-flop and lead a change to what is known as open scoring.

"It's a very interesting topic," the NSAC's executive director said Wednesday. "But there are some obvious problems (with open scoring).

"It's something the commission might choose to discuss again at a future date, and it's something that comes back to us whenever there's a close fight (such as Mosley vs. De La Hoya)."

Cynics say the NSAC and other such regulatory agencies refuse to post the judges' scores during a fight so as to protect them from (additional) scrutiny and criticism. But when Roy Jones Jr. fights Antonio Tarver Saturday at Mandalay Bay, the scores of judges Glen Hamada, Jerry Roth and David Harris will not be revealed until the bout is over.

"Personally, I think one of the greatest traditions in sports and one of the most exciting moments in sports is when the judges' scores are read to the crowd by the ring announcer," Ratner said. "I'd hate to lose that."

Chief among his concerns about open scoring is this one: "Say you've got a 12-round fight and one man wins the first eight rounds," Ratner said. "Well, now that he knows this, he doesn't have to fight the last four rounds -- he can simply stay away, and that takes away from the fight itself."

He's right and there's no getting around the reality that scenarios where fighters would "coast" to victory (or defeat) would abound with open scoring. It would simply be inevitable.

He also has this concern: "Let's say you have an unscrupulous cornerman and there's an accidental head butt in the fifth round," Ratner said. "With open scoring, if you knew your man was ahead through four rounds you might not have the incentive to do your best to fix the cut. You could say to the referee, 'My man can't go on' and the fight would be over and you'd know that you won."

Again, he's right. I suspect every fighter and cornerman -- unscrupulous or not -- would quit after getting cut if he knew he was ahead.

Ratner also feels open scoring opens the judges not only to more second guessing from the crowd, but among the judges themselves. Say, for instance, a fight reaches its scheduled halfway mark and two judges have one guy winning easily and the third judge is scoring it the other way, there's going to be a natural tendency for the third judge to "make up" for his score in the second half of the fight.

I know a lot of people who feel very strong about the benefits of open scoring -- one of them, a good friend, accosted me about it just the other day -- but I've got to say I side with the status quo on this one.

Suspense aside, keeping the scores under wraps until the fight is over would seem to minimize the potential negative repercussions. Like it or not, there is no "need to know" how a fight is being scored until the microphone is in the ring announcer's hands.

Note: Dean Juipe is filling in today for fellow columnist Ron Kantowski, who has the day off.