Sporting Life - Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008

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Medals Table
		G	S	B	Tot
1	CHN	51	21	28	100
2	USA	36	38	36	110
3	RUS	23	21	28	72
4	GBR	19	13	15	47
5	GER	16	10	15	41
6	AUS	14	15	17	46

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Computer says no!

Scrap the Olympic system before it ruins amateur boxing

Last Updated 23rd August 2008

Williams: shocking decision

Wayne McCullough has seen enough! He wants the Olympic scoring system to be scrapped. < Back to Story

Comments

Jay Chiang says...

It is not the computer system that needs to be changed, it is the referees and judges! If we could somehow make referees and judges liable for all decisions they make, by e.g. indicating if the all the button-pushes of every judge to see if the judge(s) are doing the job properly, and to "somehow" punish them for incompetence or misconduct, the fairness of the match results might improve.

Posted 09:44 27th October 2008

Pete Waylan says...

Boxing should get rid of judges altogether and just call a fight a draw if no-one is knocked out. If there is no knockout then a knock down would win it Most fights would be a draw, but so what. It would be better a draw than a random, or even worse, a predetermined result.

Posted 23:40 28th August 2008

Dave Harris says...

I agree with nearly everything, although I do not think Ken Egan did enough to win. There was certainly some dodgy scoring, however, he knew getting into the ring what he had to do as he was facing a chinese boxer. He did not do enough but it should have been closer.

Posted 13:40 28th August 2008

Paul O mordha says...

agree with you 100 % wayne although i do think most of the fights the better man won apart from big kenny egan who was robbed of gold . i dont see why the judges arnt given tv monitars as there view of the fight might be resticted from were they are sitting and you can see clearly on the tele who lands the clean punches

Posted 12:43 28th August 2008

Malik Dotiwala says...

I agree with practically everything Wayne has said about the state of amateur boxing with specific reference to the recent Olympics in Beijing..add to that the fact that amateur head-guards serve only to protect hands from injury whilst increasing head shear and increasing the concussive effect of head shots to an opponent i.e. thus counter-productive to their intended use-farcical

Posted 12:08 28th August 2008

Herbert Robinson says...

Thank God we don't have these stupid scoreing systems in professional sports, otherwise the only winners would be the Legal profession, there'd be bigger fights in the courts than the ring

Posted 10:03 26th August 2008

Cormac Lewsley says...

To say that the scoring at the Beijing games was a joke is an understatement. Fighters were clearly scoring points and time and time again they were given nothing by the judges. Paddy Barnes and Ken Egan being prime examples. Although Barnes was well beaten he landed several scoring shots during the fight on to recieve no points. And in Egans case it probably cost him a gold medal. Although a few ( HOME TOWN ) decisions were also made along the way for the chinese fighters and not only in the boxing.

Posted 07:55 26th August 2008

Henry Onyenes says...

Something is so wrong with the awarding of the points. I watched the match between the chinese and the Russia and said I will no longer watch the boxing again. Let the computer system be scrapped. It only favours the one the judges like.

Posted 22:30 25th August 2008

Enda Mangan says...

I agree i watched you fight in 92 and i was also a keen fan of an old friend of yours Paul Buttimer who also fought in 92. I feel that a lot of fighters at this Olympics were robbed by the judges. I was keen to watch the Irish fighters and on the last day American coverage of the boxing I got to see they also were outraged at how the Irish guy was robbed of gold by the Chinese boxer.

Posted 19:29 25th August 2008

Mark Kirwan says...

I have to agree with Wayne it was a total disgrace how these judges showed favourtism towards the home boxers, Kenny Egan in my opinion was robbed of a GOLD MEDAL the system has to change its a joke

Posted 17:09 25th August 2008

Mark Lester says...

I have always watched and enjoyed boxing at the olympics but was fed up with unfair decisions before this games. Maybe a more telling comment came from my kids who wondered why boxing was even in the olympics as all the boxers seemed to do was run away or bear hug constantly with little or no exciting action. Something needs to be sorted before boxing is thrown out of the olympics along with Taekwondo which was just as bad.

Posted 15:08 25th August 2008

Thomas Bentley says...

Totally agree with the comment. I can rember one fight in particular. It was an Irish Boxer against a Chinese and although the Irish boxer lost, he landed numerous good head and body punches. However at the end of the match up he failed to score a single point. Although i am English i was outraged to see the points not appearing on the cards.

Posted 15:06 25th August 2008

Niall Hickman says...

Wayne is totally spot on. The whole system is absurd and some of the refereeing was laughably inept.

Posted 11:39 25th August 2008

Maeleachlainn O conaill says...

I totally agree with you Wayne. Every fight I observed was won inside the first 2 rounds after this the guy who was winning went on the run he was like someone warming up for the 100meters sprint. The spoilling tactics were just brutal as well. The refs should have penalised some boxers more often for not fighting. One particular fight I observed two guys on the canvas 20 plus times because one guy just would stop running & holding. The European was so disgusted he picked the guy up & dropped him to the canvas to get him off him. The final score was very low something like 10-3 they were on the canvas more than the score card???? The only fight I that I enjoyed was Darren Sutherland vrs an Algerian lad what a fight. That was a classic.

Posted 11:17 25th August 2008

David Hughes says...

I think the computor scoring should be scrapped and a return made to the previous scoring method.

Posted 10:03 25th August 2008

Garry Mcintyre says...

Totall Agree with Wayne on this one , it has mad the olympics so Boring , with all the Running that goes on after a guy is ahead in the fight. I also think its affecting prospects when the turn pro as a lot of them dont know how to work on the inside,

Posted 09:30 25th August 2008

Jamie Lee says...

I totally agree with you Wayne, i think the scoring system has been an absolute disgrace!!! Many fighters got a helping hand into the next rounds, and so on...its clearly not a fair system, and some of the countback decisions were nothing short of farcical...

Posted 09:18 25th August 2008

Maurice Chirimi says...

This article is certainly an eye opener for me. I watched the Olympics boxing and sometimes failed to understand how the final winners were picked. There was one particular fight where we argued throughout the bout coz the scores showed on the TV screen and our thoughts (based on our knowledge of boxing) just did not make any sense. The guy who we thought was winning was behind on points and ended up losing, although he seemed to be landing more head and body shots and was clearly the better boxer. If this is how bouts are judged then there is a serious flaw in the scoring system and something needs to change asap. I hope someone with influence somewhere is reading such articles and will take the necessary steps to make the sport fair (at least the olympic version)

Posted 07:01 25th August 2008

Will Moody says...

Whilst there are always loosers there are also winners in any sport. The way we decide this is by having rules. I am no expert on boxing but have heard that when the old system was used there were also "dodgy" decisions. No system is perfect. I am surprised that a computor system cannot be made so that combinations can be registered. I do like to see who is winning as someone who does not very often watch boxing except at the Olympics so feel the present system is good but may need some tweeking if what Mr McCullough says is true.

Posted 05:49 25th August 2008

Jamie Reddihough says...

i have to agree completely. i watched pretty much every event at the olympics and the two that frustreted me the most was the taekwondo and boxing. Both requiring referees to agree on a particular attack's worthyness as a scoring point often left me wondering what on earth was going on. It felt like i was watching a different match somtimes.There was some criminal decisions in the taekwondo that seemed more to be with judge's complete bias over one fighter. In the boxing i was much the same. waiting for obvious scoring points to come up yet nothing happened. Most frustrating when a boxer put a combo of hits in, everyone causing damage on the opponent yet only one point was given. Right then that told me the system had to be scrapped with less emphasis on straight technical hits and more towards a system that rewarded a fighter for effective punching and ring control with the winner and corner finding out points at the end and not duing the fight.

Posted 05:09 25th August 2008

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