Open Scoring a Dud
Dateline: 04/25/99The topic of open scoring has proven to be good for generating discussion and debate, but open scoring itself does nothing to enhance the sport of boxing. In fact, based on last night's championship tripleheader, which experimented with two variations of the controversial method of scoring, open scoring actually does more harm than good. The fighters and their corners paid little or no attention to the scores during the fight, the fighters with commanding leads tended to coast over the final frames and, perhaps worst of all, with the outcomes all but a foregone conclusion, the fans were deprived of the drama surrounding the reading of the judges' scores. Everyone agrees that boxing's traditional scoring system - with official scores announced only after the fight's conclusion - all too frequently results in erroneous decisions. However these outcomes are typically the result of either incompetence or dishonesty, and open scoring really does nothing to address either of these underlying problems.
The Fights
Keith Holmes (34-2, 23 KO) reclaimed the WBC middleweight title with a seventh round TKO of Hacine Cherifi (26-3-1, 17 KO). Holmes fought better than he did in losing the title to Cherifi back in May 1998, but still appeared lethargic at times and was not overly impressive. However, Holmes was able to catch Cherifi with a right hook to the head with 1:10 to go in the seventh and deserves credit for aggressively trying to finish off his staggered opponent. Many of Holmes' 31 unanswered punches missed the mark, but the barrage was enough to prompt referee Frank Cappuccino to jump in and stop the fight at the 2:17 mark. The stoppage - Cappuccino actually had to break a clinch to wave a halt to the action - appeared a bit premature. The scores in this fight were announced after the fourth round and would have been announced again after the eighth had the fight gone that far. Interesting to note that through the six completed rounds, the judges had the fight 40-36 and 39-37 for Holmes and 39-37 for Cherifi -- but all three judges never agreed on the winner of a single round!
Next up, Sharmba Mitchell (45-2, 29 KO) retained his WBA super lightweight title with a majority decision over Reggie Green (30-3, 14 KO). This fight featured open scoring with scores announced at the conclusion of every round. Green went down in the first from a series of clubbing rights to the head, but came back to stagger Mitchell in the second with a right to the head and, later in the same round, with a left hook to the body. After 11 rounds, Mitchell was ahead 106-102, 106-103 and 104-104. Knowing all he had to do was avoid a knockout, Mitchell went into survival mode -- so, thanks to open scoring, the final round of an otherwise competitive bout was rendered dull and inconsequential. The final (anti-climactic) scores were 116-111 and 115-113 for Mitchell and one even (114-114).
Finally, Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson (37-1, 26 KO) captured the vacant IBF junior bantamweight title with an easy unanimous decision win over tough Ratanachai Vorapin (35-4, 25 KO). Johnson was in control throughout - winning by scores 188-109, 117-110 and 116-110 - and continues to chase Johnny Tapia, who vacated this title and moved up in weight to avoid Johnson. Johnson is one of the top fighters in the world and deserves to be a headliner -- especially on a card he shares with Keith Holmes and Sharmba Mitchell (Johnson's fight was the last one on the televised broadcast, but was actually tape delayed from earlier in the evening). It's time for Mark Johnson and Johnny Tapia to finally square off and determine who's the best little man in boxing today.
Final Comment
Even worse than the experiment with open scoring was Showtime's inability to communicate to viewers what was going on. Scores that were announced to fans in attendance were relayed to the viewing audience late or not at all, and commentator Ferdie Pacheco insisted on referring to his own scorecard throughout. Hey Ferdie -- whether you like open scoring or not, the fact that the ACTUAL scores are available obligates you to acknowledge them and share them with the viewing audience. If you want to compare your scores with the actual scores, that's fine -- but you can't just ignore the scores entirely. While Bobby Czyz was doing his best to try and explain to viewers what Reggie Green needed to do to avoid defeat entering the final round of his fight with Sharmba Mitchell, Pacheco inexplicably kept yammering on about how he had Mitchell ahead by two points -- seemingly failing to grasp the simple fact that his card was entirely irrelevant to the actual outcome of the bout!
