By Danny Serratelli at ringside for Doghouse Boxing and Brick City Boxing (Sept 17, 2014)
Lately it is difficult to watch a fight and not hear about the judges or referee blowing it. However, due to the subjective nature in how a professional boxing match is scored, it is not as black and white as many people including fans, trainers and also many judges I have spoken to over the years would like to think. I’ve often heard judges explain how rounds are always cut and dry one way or the other, but also how their colleagues are extremely competent. Unfortunately both of those statements usually cannot be true.
Taking a closer look at all three judges scoring on each of the Mayweather vs. Maidana fights can give boxing fans more to think about. While fights are scored by professionals, they are also human. Among other things that may influence them, they hear the crowd, they know what happened in the first fight, and they are familiar with the fighters reputations. It often appears that more judges tend to favor the slicker boxer, often awarding rounds to the sharper more economical boxer than to the busier, more aggressive body puncher like in Mayweather vs. Maidana, however this is not always the case as we saw in Canelo Alvarez vs. Erislandy Lara, where Canelo edged him out with his aggression and bodywork.
Now the popular opinion on the 2nd Mayweather vs. Maidana fight appears to be that Maidana was totally outclassed and it was a night and day difference from the first fight….but was that really the case? Not really, if you take a closer look at all three scorecards from both fights.
The only judge to score both fights, Dave Moretti scored the first bout 116-112 (8-4 in rounds) for Mayweather. His score for the second fight, which was supposedly a blowout compared to the first fight was 116-111. For anyone who didn’t watch the fight, this is the exact same score except for the point taken from Maidana by referee Kenny Bayless in the second fight.
Judge John McKaie, who worked the second fight, had the same score as Moretti, 116-111 (8-4 in rounds).
Judge Guido Cavalleri scored the second fight 115-112 (7-5 in rounds) for Mayweather, so he had the second fight closer than two of the judges had the first fight.
Judge Burt Clements scored the first fight 117-111, (9-3 in rounds) this was the widest margin of any card in either fight, yet it was from the fight that was supposedly the one that was very close.
The 3rd judge from the first fight, Michael Pernick, scored the first fight 114-114 (6-6 in rounds), a draw.
In the first fight all three judges scored 7 of the 12 rounds the same way. All 7 of those rounds were rounds that Mayweather won an all 3 cards.
In the second fight all three judges scored 8 of the 12 rounds the same way. This time 6 were rounds that Floyd won on all 3 cards. It is interesting that the 2 rounds that Maidana won on all 3 cards were the 10th and the 12th. In the 10th there was a questionable point deduction against Maidana and the 12th Floyd clearly gave away and didn’t care.
I personally believe I score the fight better when I watch it on television then when I do live, so I am looking forward to scoring it again when I see the replay this weekend. My purpose here isn’t to complain about or praise any of the aforementioned judges, but to give everyone a chance to look at both cards and to think about scoring the fights the same way the judges do before jumping to conclusions and agreeing with other people who may have done the same thing.