Video:How Boxing Is Scored: Professional

Transcript:How Boxing Is Scored: Professional

Hi, My name is Dave Gaudette. I own Front Range Boxing Academy and I train amateur and professional boxers, and I am here today with About.com to talk to you about how boxing is scored.

Professional Boxing Score for Clean Punching

Professional boxing is scored with respect to four different criteria: Clean punching. Clean punching involves hitting scoring areas, that is the legal scoring areas which are all above the belt and in front of the body.

Effective Aggression Scores for Boxing

Effective aggression, that is aggression where you end up hitting the other guy, more than he is hitting you, where you are pressing the fight to your advantage.

Scoring Ringer Generalship and Defense in Boxing

Ring generalship, in which you try to steer the fight towards your strengths and away from your weaknesses. For instance, a tall guy fighting a short guy, a tall guy wants to keep it on the outside, land the straight solid punches on the short guy, move out of the way when the short guy tries to close the distance. The short guy tries to cut off the ring, get inside where his low center of gravity will help him, and dominate his opponent in that way. Another criterion is defense.

Counting the Points in Professional Boxing

 The system that professional boxing is scored under is called a 10 point must system, in which the winner of the round gets 10 points and the loser gets 9, or fewer points. If one person is clearly ahead of the other, it's probably going to be a 10, 9 round. In a round where the loser gets knocked down, it s going to be a 10-8 round. In a professional bout, whenever a fighter is legitimately knocked down, they take away a point. Occasionally it will be a 10-7 round if a fighter gets knocked down more than a couple of times, or severely dominated.

Judging Decision in Professional Boxing

If a fight goes the distance, there are four possible outcomes.

One is a unanimous decision, in which all three judges vote for the winner.

The second is a split decision, where two judges vote for the winner, and one judge votes for the one who is going to be the loser.

The third is a draw, in which one judge votes for one fighter, another judge votes for the other fighter, and the other judge votes it as a draw. A majority decision is where two judges have it scored for one fighter, and the other judge scores the fight as a draw. Of course a professional fight can end on a knockout, which renders the scoring basically moot. 

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