Should Professional Boxing Change Its Scoring System? A Comparison of Current and Proposed Methods

In the aftermath of the controversial draw verdict in the first bout between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis, numerous suggestions have been advanced to reform the process of scoring professional boxing contests. This paper compares the status quo scoring system in boxing, the 10-Point Must System, to New Jersey’s 10-Point Majority System and the “consensus scoring” technique currently being considered by the New York State Legislature. We compare the three scoring systems on theoretical grounds and by comparing the results when the systems are applied to every world title fight sanctioned by the sport’s four major sanctioning bodies between 1986 and 1999 that was decided on the judges’ scorecards.