November 13, 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN
The adaptation of open scoring system was confirmed in the WBC convention in Croatia this October. The very first was seen in a WBC world title twinbill on Monday in Tokyo, Japan. It seemed very successful as the crowd welcomed the announcement of the official tallies after the fourth and after the eighth.
In the first world title bout between Eagle Kyowa and Lorenzo Trejo, the scorecards after the fourth were all 39-36 in favor of Eagle, the defending WBC 105-pound champ. After the eighth, the scores were announced to be so split as 75-74, 75-74 and 74-75, which showed the game was so close. And, it finally resulted in a hairline unanimous decision of 114-113 and 113-112 twice. The announcements of the intermediate scores evidently gave the crowd a sort of great excitement to have them realize that the fight was very close.
There was a problem. The scores after the fourth and eighth were announced only in Japanese by a ring announcer, and were shown on a big screen of the arena. The officials of the first world title go couldnft understand the announcement, nor saw the screen (also written in Japanese in the description of the champ and the challenger) because of a lack of prefight information. The officials of the first world title bout complained of not having realized the scores midway in the contest.
Therefore, the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) advised the judges of the second world title bout to see the big screen by pointing out that the left-side figure is one for the champ, while the right-side one is for the challenger.
In the WBC bantam title bout between Hozumi Hasegawa and Genaro Garcia, the tallies after the fourth were 40-36, 40-35 and 39-36, all for the defending champ. The scores after the eighth were 77-71 twice and 77-72, also for Hasegawa.
The JBC also delivered a paper to Garciafs corner to inform them of the scores during the recess after the fourth. However, the JBCfs announcement of the scorecards after the eighth eventually delayed because the eighth was so complex and complicated as there happened a dual penalization (one-point deduction from each boxer) and a knockdown of Garcia. The WBC supervisor Major Lee and the JBC took time to re-check and confirm that the scores were definitely right before they officially announced it.
Please be advised that the announcement of the scores should be done both in Japanese and in English in the future. It might be good to make it a rule to deliver each corner a paper of the intermediate scores, especially for a foreign boxerfs corner, to overcome the language barrier, as done by the JBC.
Fortunately enough, both games were see-saw, not so one-sided, affairs, so there wasnft any bad effect tonight after announcing the scores. The boxers leading on points (Eagle and Hasegawa) didnft avoid mixing up to keep their lead on points, while those losing on points (Trejo and Garcia) turned loose to aim at a KO win to make the games more interesting and exciting. In this regard everything was successful in the open scoring system done in Japan tonight, although it might be still too early to conclude this system is good enough. We have to study a better way to show the intermediate scores after the fourth and eighth more clearly to the crowd.
(11-13-06)