# Boxing Rules - Re: "How do they score boxing?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 29, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227 "2000-08-29T19:17:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SEQUITOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SEQUITOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SEQUITOR)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227/1 "2000-08-29T19:17:02Z")
The SDSTAFF (Ian) gave an incomplete (and misleading) answer to the subject question. There are 4 criteria that judges use when scoring a professional boxing match. They are: 1. Ring Generalship 2. Effective Aggressiveness 3. Clean Punching 4. Defense These concepts are what make boxing the great art that it is, and their misrepresentation is boxing’s biggest problem. Even boxing insiders (ex:“Max” of Friday Night Fights) downplay their importance in favor of more simpleminded scoring methods, such as “Punchstat” and “Compubox” which are easier to present to the public even though they are an insult to the sport. Remember; boxing is supposed to measure the better man as in “May the best man win”, not the baddest man, or the toughest man, or the one who lands the most punches; the best man. (It is, in fact, the only contest that attempts this!). Judging such a contest requires a solid understanding of the issues involved. That is why those criteria are so important, and why the American public should know them. * * * LINK: [How do they score boxing?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbox.html) – Edited in by Dex [Edited by CKDextHavn on 08-30-2000 at 08:22 AM] ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2000, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227/2 "2000-08-29T22:10:00Z")
I think your finger slipped . . . didn’t you mean to put this in “Comments on Mailbag Answers?” That’s where it’s going. your humble TubaDiva Admnistrator ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227/3 "2000-09-02T15:08:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SEQUITOR \* > \*\* The SDSTAFF (Ian) gave an incomplete (and misleading) answer to the subject question. > There are 4 criteria that judges use when scoring a professional boxing match. They are: > > 1. Ring Generalship > 2. Effective Aggressiveness > 3. Clean Punching > 4. Defense > These concepts are what make boxing the great art that it is, … > Remember; boxing is supposed to measure the better man as in “May the best man win”, not the baddest man, or the toughest man, or the one who lands the most punches; the best man. (It is, in fact, the only contest that attempts this!). > \*\* I don’t know about other sports, but in Kendo, similar criteria are required to win. You may strike at a correct angle, with sufficient force, slide the sword forward, and still not get a point. You are judged on zanshin, ma’ai, and ki as well as how “clean” your cut was. So in that sense, the judges are judging in a way very similar to boxing - by judging on your spirit, sense of the “ring”/opponent and preparedness/defensiveness. ---
**Author:** ![sbscout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@sbscout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbscout)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2000, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227/4 "2000-09-04T14:17:17Z")
You forgot one major criteria: which fighter’s manager/handler paid off the judges! ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2000, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227/5 "2000-09-10T07:29:56Z")
Neal Stephenson gives an amusing definition of _zanshin_ in his scifi novel _Snow Crash_: > [@](#): > > …Translating this concept [_zanshin_] into English is like translating “fuckface” into Nipponese, but it might translate into “emotional intensity” in football lingo… > > …“Emotional intensity” doesn’t convey the half of it, of course. It is the kind of coarse and disappointing translation that makes the dismembered bodies of samurai warriors spin in their graves. The word “zanshin” is larded down with a lot of other folderol that you have to be Nipponese to understand. > > And Hiro [the protagonist] thinks, frankly, that most of it is pseudomystical crap, on the same level as his old high school football coach exhorting his men to play at 110 percent. The explanation is a bit unsympathetic, but it does convey the point. Plus it packs more punch in the book because it takes place during a virtual swordfight. Which the hero wins, naturally. ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boxing-rules-re-how-do-they-score-boxing/31227/6 "2000-09-18T19:46:45Z")
He was intimately familiar with these swords he’d designed that would cut through _anything_ no matter how it was swung. If all I had to do with a real sword was swing it in the general direction of a guy’s legs to have it go right through them, I wouldn’t have to put up with Seto critiquing my stroke as wood chopping, not cutting. Zanshin, zanshin… When someone actually takes the time to explain it, rather then just using negative reinforcement to teach it, it seems to be translated as something like alert readiness. Seem right?