Boxing in Media: Social Media Boxing Posts

Having not been a keen social media user these last few years I have been reintroduced to how confrontational the algorithm can be in curating content that generates anger and leads to arguments. My feed has been sending me memes and posts that are boxing related and often I let things slide. Other times I get sucked in and feel compelled to post. While I think its not great for mental health to spar online with other people’s opinions, it does give good writing topics for my blog. Here are some of the recent debates in my feed:

Learn to score a fight: I am not an official judge, official judges have been getting the stick lately for unpopular scorecards but I think their opinion still holds merit. I will not get upset with anyone who turns in a scorecard with their full rounds listed and if they can give an explanation on how or why they awarded the round the way they did. What I do get upset about is people trashing other fan scorecards without having a scorecard of their own. It is my belief that you cannot call a fight a robbery if you have not scored it yourself. I also tend to think it is best to watch a fight more than once to formulate a decision not swayed by anticipation. I also need to reiterate that boxing is scored on a round by round basis with the criteria ingrained into all of our heads by Harold Lederman: 1) clean effective punching 2) effective aggression 3) ring generalship, and 4) Defense. I don’t want to see your opinion that Devon Haney won because look at Lomachenko’s swelling around his eyes or I don’t care that the punch stat shows Lomachenko out landed Haney by 14 punches and 5 power punches. These explanations do not score the fight round by round. A fighter’s eyes can swell from one well placed punch, thumb or headbutt. Punch stat is useless if it is not round by round. A fighter could out land another fighter by 30 punches in one big round and skew the total of a mostly even fight in the other eleven rounds. Even a round by round punch stat is not an end all be all. Some fighters hit harder than others and some fighters have a jab that is another guy’s power punch. Then take into account whether or not the figures on screen are even accurate. Please watch the fight and score it using the real criteria and don’t mock or insult a scorecard if you don’t have one yourself.

Terrence Crawford says he would beat Floyd Mayweather: What do you angry fans expect him to say? Crawford is an undefeated multiple weight champion who has been high on some expert pound for pound lists. I would hope that a guy with his credentials would have that kind of confidence in his abilities, a man without that would not be a champion in the first place. Floyd Mayweather himself drew ire when declaring he was the best ever and greater than Muhammad Ali and Ray Robinson and said essentially the same thing I typed in my paragraph just more eloquently. Larry Holmes also drew angry fans when he said he was the best heavyweight ever and could beat any heavyweight whoever competed (not a direct quote). Again, that is a champion’s mindset. We do not have to agree with the statement but to get your morning ruined by that comment is idiotic. Floyd Mayweather Decision in 12 is my pick

Lomachenko scored the Haney fight a win for himself 116-112: Yes because he is not biased at all when scoring his own fight! Much like the above paragraph, what fighter is going to say they lost a close fight. It doesn’t happen, Oscar De La Hoya is walking around to this day saying he beat Floyd Mayweather! I chalk this up under the category of duh and nothing to get excited about. I scored it 115-113 Haney but acknowledged the close nature of the fight and the amount of swing rounds. Given neither fighter won seven rounds clearly, this fight could be open to many interpretations. To say one guy definitely won is disingenuous.