THE CASE FOR THE DRAW

April 23, 2024

Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury declared a DRAW

 

Simon Ruvalcaba

Coming off another major bout that was declared a draw, many in the boxing community are demanding the elimination of the draw. Before you move forward with the movement keep a few things in mind as far as any potential change to the rules of a bout based on what alot of you are suggesting?

1. MAKE BOUTS AN UNEVEN SET OF ROUNDS: Doing this would mean no draws if you eliminate even rounds and if there’s no knockdowns. However, with the sports world more on the side of safety these days, what would be most likely for commissions and sanctioning bodies to approve would be 11 round fights and not a 13th round like so many are suggesting. Just another case of be careful what you wish for.

2. IF THE BOUT IS A DRAW, FIGHT ONE MORE ROUND TO HAVE A WINNER: This suggestion is asking the fighters to give it their all and then have enough in the tank for one more round? To me, you could make the argument that fighter that loses the overtime round should be the winner, because the other guy had more energy that should’ve been used in the fight.

3. OPEN SCORING SO A FIGHTER WILL KNOW IF HE’S BEHIND: I think back to Pernell Whitaker against Felix Trinidad when Whitaker’s corner told him he needs to do more and ‘Sweet Pea’ said, “I’m doing my best” to which the trainer said “well you need to do more” Whitaker replied “Well then I’m gonna lose.” Open scoring will take away from the drama of the announcement, have the potential to start a riot if a fight is happening and the crowd doesn’t agree, and in some way implies that the commission is supposed to address a judge mid fight to let them know they are scoring incorrectly?

4. USE PUNCHSTAT NUMBERS OR HAVE 5 JUDGES: Punchstat as many see in bouts does not tell the whole story. Extra judges would have a judge or two positioned with the broadcast commentators and hearing their voice right besides you may influence someone’s judgement of the fight?

5. BRING THE OLD AMATEUR POINT SCORING SYSTEM TO THE PROS: No thanks, we all saw how that worked out for several consecutive Olympic games…

At the end of the day, bouts always going to be mathematically capable of being scored even. What the public is fed up with is the fact that the majority of the times when there’s a draw, it’s in favor of the more politically connected fighter. You rarely see the star fighter get robbed of a deserving victory. I know I’ve seen plenty of undercard, off tv bouts where a prospect is fighting an opponent and the prospect gets across the board shutout decisions in what I will think was a much closer fight. It is also unfortunate that many former fighters aren’t allowed to become judges, because judges and officials with a commission are expected not to have friendships or any conflict of interest. I know in my area, I know just about every fighter and coach and I’ve been to many of their gyms. The fight community is a small world, it would be tough to expect judges not to communicate with fighters, so i do think we need more neutral judges come in to fight cards in other States?

The draw also doesn’t hurt as much as a loss and usually sets up a lucrative rematch. At the end of the day, the draw will stay in boxing, but the debate will never be settled or be allowed to be declared a draw.

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