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From Cecil's Mailbag by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Dear Straight Dope:
No one knows the answer to this question. But you will,
of course. Please help.
Boxing is the only sport I know of in which the score of the
match, DURING the match, is kept SECRET from:
1. the referee
2. the participants
3. the audience
Why? In football, baseball, tennis, you name it, the score is
always right up there on the scoreboard. The players even adjust
their strategy according to the score. But boxers must GUESS
if they need to go for that knockout in a late round.
As I write you, I suddenly have an inspiration. Is it necessary
to keep the judges scores secret from EACH OTHER? Is that it?
Thank you, great Cecil, for your help. --Larry Stevens
SDSTAFF Ian replies:
Why? Because, you huge wuss, the only way a real man wins a boxing
match is to beat up the other guy until he can't stand up anymore.
For a very long time, this was literally true. Prize fighting was
simply hitting, biting, gouging, anything short of the use of
weapons until the other guy gave up. The first rules were pub
rules, and were put in place to lower the chances of a boxer
getting killed. For instance, when a boxer was knocked down,
his
opponent had to stop hitting him. Each knockdown was called a
'round.' However, this rule was soon exploited by boxers taking a
knee as soon as they got tired, at their leisure, and ending the
round so they could catch their breath.
In 1743, Jack Broughton, the English champion, drew up a set of
rules that became at least moderately accepted. Chief among these
was the addition of "two Umpires, who shall absolutely decide all
Disputes that may arise about the Battle." These disputes were not
about who won or lost, which was still determined only by giving
up, or a boxer not being able to return to the fight within 30
seconds of being knocked down, but about the new foul calls
Broughton introduced, namely whether a boxer had "hit his Adversary
when he is down or seize him by the ham, the breeches, or any part
below the waist." You know, protect life first, the family jewels
second.
The Broughton Rules were superseded by the London Prize Rules in
1838, but really these were only modifications and
standardizations, such as ring dimensions, giving a boxer a little
more time to "come up to scratch" at the beginning of the round,
and making it the responsibility of the judges to determine if a
man was truly knocked down to end a round, or if he had just taken
a knee to gain his wind, which was considered a foul. Still,
knockouts and crying uncle were the only ways, short of being
kicked out by the judges, of losing a fight.
In 1867, the London Amateur Athletic Club drew up a new set of
rules, including mandating boxers to wear gloves, limiting rounds
to three minutes, disallowing any contact besides punches (i.e.,
wrestling holds), and declaring a boxer who could not stand within
ten seconds of a knockdown the loser of the contest. The LAAC got
their rules endorsed by John Sholto Douglas, the Marquess of
Queensberry. These rules eventually won out over the London
Prize
Rules for a couple of reasons, among them the celebrity endorsement
by the Marquess, the appeal to the audience of the increased fight
pace, and the use of gloves, which reduced the risk that a boxer
would die in the ring.
The boxing community was slow to adopt a uniform set of rules. In
1889, John L. Sullivan defended the heavyweight title by KOing Jake
Kilrain in 75 rounds under bare-knuckle rules, Ike Weir fought
Frank Murphy to an 80 round draw in a featherweight tiltle fight,
and Chappie Moran won a 10-round decision over Tommy Kelly for the
first bantamweight title. Sullivan, weary from his fight, declared
that, from then on, "The Marquess of Queensbury Rules
must govern [my fights], as I want fighting, not foot-racing." In
1890, London's Pelican Club, the quasi-official governing body of
the boxing world, adopted rules similar to Queensberry's, with the
modification that a fight could last no longer than 20 rounds, for
the first time codifying the emerging practice of having the judges
score fights in which there was no obvious winner. Significantly,
the Moran-Kelly fight was in Brooklyn, under New
York laws which prohibited fights longer than 10 rounds,
necessitating judges to determine a winner if neither fighter was
knocked out. Eventually, this came to be thought of as an
acceptable arrangement by other governing bodies of boxing, again,
because boxers were more likely to survive the fights. From
1911-1920, New York fights, and pretty much all American fights,
were fought under the "Frawley Law," which not only restricted
fights to ten
rounds, but prohibited decisions on points. This was done to
combat the corruption and bribery which were emerging among judges
and referrees allegedly influenced by gamblers. At this point,
bettors decided that, in no decision fights, they would use the
opinion of agreed-upon newspaper columnists (!) to determine who
won the fight, and therefore the bet. No possibility of corruption
there, I'm sure.
By 1920, when the no-decision law was repealed, it was evident that
America, and the rest of the world, was taking their lead from New
York, and the NY State Athletic Commission became the governing
body of boxing worldwide. They established and stabilized 8
weight classes, and implemented the 10-point system (which they
found preferable to the British system of the round's winner
getting 5 points, the loser getting 4 3/4 or 4 1/2). The
three judge system was thought best, to at least fend off bribery,
and yes, they were isolated from each other, in order to see the
fight from different viewpoints, and also to prevent influence of
one overbearing judge who might be bribed. There may also have
been a lingering feeling that announcing the scores during the
match would incline some boxers to try to win on points, rather
than go for the knockout, which of course is what bloodthirsty
spectators such as you and me have paid good money to see.
So the short answer to your question is, boxing scores are kept
secret to ward off death and corruption. Today we have crystals
for this, and they're just about as effective.
--SDSTAFF Ian
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Cecil's Mailbag is researched and written by members of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. Although the SDSAB does its best, these articles are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you'd better keep your fingers crossed.
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