TESTING THE SYSTEM
BARELY a fortnight on from the controversy that surrounded Jermell Charlo vs Brian Castaño, the WBC has announced a suggestion for changing the way professional boxing is scored. The ‘Quantitative and Qualitative’ – or ‘Q&Q’ – system seeks to address the confusingly wide or artificially narrow scores created by ‘10-point-must’.
After reading their announcement, I looked back at my own scorecard for Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Teófimo López from October 2020: a bizarre 114-114 draw that looked and felt wrong. For me, López had won the first half of the fight comfortably, with Loma sharpening up later to steal close rounds that counted for the same points. That was the night of Lewis Ritson vs Miguel Vázquez, and soon came Zelfa Barrett vs Kiko Martínez, and a frenzied debate on how to score a boxing fight.
But what would the results of contentious fights actually have been if scored in a different way?
