Why it Is so Hard to Be a Boxing Fan

I really enjoy sports, but one sport I have never been much of a fan of is boxing. Yesterday, I was flipping through sports and noticed boxing televised on HBO. This particular game I watched was a serious match between two high-ranked lightweight boxers: Ali Funeka versus Joan Guzman. To my surprise this match was surprisingly interesting to watch and throughout it I told myself that I may have begun to really enjoy boxing. Towards the end of the fight it was clear that Funeka was romping Joan Guzman who was bloodies all over the face and seemed to not be entirely conscious with his inability to fully throw a punch. For one, I was a bit shocked that Funeka was not able to knock out a seriously weakened Guzman towards the end match, but nonetheless it seemed clear Funeka would win the match on a judge’s decision. At the end of the match the television announcers analyzed the stats, which showed Funeka as an obvious victor. Funkea landed over twice as many punches as Guzman and one of the announcers decided to fill out an unofficial scorecard giving Funeka the win 117 to 111. However, two of the judges ruled the match a 114-114 tie which led to a draw by lack of majority decision. The announcers showed a clear mistake by the two Canadian judges who ruled the match a tie. Both of these judges, Alan Davis and Benoit Roussel, had very little judging experience compared to Joe Pasquale the lone judge who ruled the match as a victory for Funeka. Such strange subjective and unfair results to what should be a relatively clear decision one way seem to make it so difficult to be a serious fan of boxing.