Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: A Scoring Primer

We finally got it, albeit about 5 or 6 years late. This generation's Lewis vs. Schmeling II or Ali vs. Frazier I. Given the magnitude of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, there will be scores of casual boxing fans and non-boxing fans tuning in. Not only will people will be watching, they will definitely have their opinions locked and ready regarding who won the fight once it is over.

While having opinions, very few of the opinionated will be able to back up their claims with data. People tend to score boxing matches as one entire fight rather than an accumulation of mutually exclusive rounds. Others may look at one fighter's face and see that they show more bruising than the other fighter, but fail to mention that the bruised fighter is also lighter-skinned, allowing the bruising to be more obvious. Some may score for the fighter that is showing more offense while ignoring defense.

This is be sort of a rough scoring guide in case you want to back up your claim as to who won the fight come late Saturday night.

Point System

Think of it this way. Both fighters begin the round with 10 points. By the end of the round, who ever you think won keeps 10 points while the fighter that lost the round gets 9 points. Very, very rarely are rounds scored a tie, 10-10, but it can happen. However, you should do everything in your power to score the round for one fighter. If a fighter scores a knockdown, you take a point away from the fighter that got knocked down. Often times, it will become a 10-8 round. If the fighter gets knocked down repeatedly (more than once), you may score it 10-7. Don't worry too much as there probably will not be repeated knockdowns Saturday night, but who knows.

Remember, you are scoring individual rounds and not judging the entire fight. At the end, you total the scores for both fighters, and you have your winner or a tie. Here are the criteria:

Clean Punching

You want to look for punches that actually connect with the opponent's head or torso. Make sure it is not a punch that was blocked. You want to look for frequency and effectiveness.

Defense

Yes, defense is a construct that judges use to score fights. It is tricky trying to decipher if a fighter is showing good defense or if they are running. I like to use this concept to measure the difference between defense and running. Ask yourself "is the fighter evading punches while being in a position to counter punch?" You will have to be the judge.

Effective Aggression

Ultimately, effective aggression is linked to punching and ring generalship. You may want to score the round for the aggressor, but you should also be looking weather or not that aggression was effective. One could be aggressive, but the opponent could be displaying good defense as well.

Ring Generalship

Which fighter is dictating the terms of the fight. If you have two contrasting styles, for example one is a large-volume puncher and the other a defensive-counterpuncher, who is imposing their style and will on the other fighter?

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Hopefully I was able to provide some key info so that those interested can score the fight and back up their argument. Also, you can catch and expose horrible judges. There will always be some variation, but if one scorecard is an outlier, something is usually wrong. If you choose not to score it and just want to enjoy history, that's all good too! Nonetheless, I will have my scorecard ready!

(You can print scorecards here at boxingscorecards.com)