Amid widespread outrage over Brazil's Robson Conceição's split-decision win over Oshaqui Foster in a WBC junior lightweight title bout in New Jersey on Saturday night, boxing promoter Bob Arum said the fierce reaction was unnecessarily fuelled by ESPN's overreliance on Compubox punch statistics.
“I spoke to all the people there. [including Top Rank President Todd duBoef and Vice President Carl Moretti]and they all said it was a close fight that could have been 7-5 no matter who won,” Arum told Boxing Scene on Sunday.
“The Compubox people weren't even at the game. It's a scam. I watched it on TV. You never know exactly what's going to land. … You have to be there to see it. Like the umpires.”
Judge Ronald McNair scored the bout 116-112 in favor of title holder Foster, but judges Anthony Lundy and Paul Wallace scored the bout 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of Conceição in his fourth attempt.
An excited Foster said, “I thought it was a shutout. I want a rematch. They took the game away from me.”
ESPN's broadcast team of Joe Tessitore, Timothy Bradley Jr. and Mark Kriegel also viewed the game as a close win for Foster.
ESPN scorer Kriegel predicted Foster would win in the 11th round.
Before the official cards were read, Tessitore pointed to Compubox figures which showed Conceição landed just 11 percent of his 701 total punches and said the result was clear based on that.
According to Compubox, Conceição only landed more than 10 punches in two of the 10 rounds.
Bradley called Foster's effort “easy work,” but then slammed the judges, calling the score a “gift from God” and “ridiculous,” adding, “Conceição didn't even touch that guy. … What are we doing?”
Kieran Mulvaney of the boxing scene Equally surprised by the judgingwrote:“There are bad calls in boxing, terrible calls, and then there are calls that are completely incomprehensible and inexplicable, like the decision on Saturday night that saw Robson Conceição beat Oshaquie Foster to win the 130-pound title despite being clearly outmatched.”
Arum, however, slammed ESPN staff.
Aram said he believes Conceição was the more aggressive player because Compubox numbers showed him outshooting Foster 701-435.
“The announce team doesn't score the fights, they just look at the punch stats,” Arum said. “The only way to score it 11-1 is to go by the punch stats… [viewers] They are inaccurate. [a remote location]And I don't think anyone really knows that. [CompuBox is charting punches] Outside the arena.
“CompuBox [always] There [in the arena]Television only gives you a rough idea of what effect a punch will have if it lands, because you are only seeing the fight from one side.
“The judges ThereIt's ridiculous to base your judgement on punch statistics.”
Kriegel watched the fight from ringside and later told Boxing Scene, “The Compubox numbers can't measure the impact or effectiveness of any particular punch, but they are a very useful tool in providing a baseline and a way to ask yourself whether what you saw lines up with the raw numbers. And when you look at the Compubox numbers for Foster vs. Conceição, they tell a pretty consistent story. They definitely line up with what you saw from ringside, especially in fights without knockdowns.”
CompuBox founder Bob Canobio, who next year will mark 40 years since he started recording punch statistics, defended the accuracy of his tally.
“First of all, we're not the official scorers. We provide a barometer of what's going on in the ring. And then it's up to the announcers what they do with the numbers,” Canobbio said.
Canobbio said Arum was correct that Compubox staff were working remotely for the fight in Newark, New Jersey, headlined by Shakur Stevenson's WBC lightweight title defense.
A little over five years ago, CompuBox began tracking attendance at high-profile cards remotely because it couldn't staff each venue.
“And we haven't had any backlash so far,” Canobbio said. [television] Using cameras on dedicated streams often gives a better view than the traditional method of looking through a rope. [near ringside].”
Aram was nervous about the Conceição vs. Foster match because he saw it as a “very close game.”
“But listening to it on TV, it sounded like the robbery of the century to them. But it wasn't. Conceição was always putting up a fight,” Aram said.
Canobio pointed out that his statistics show the difference in total punches landed, and that power punches landed in Foster's favor, a slight 58-49 advantage.
“But Foster landed a much higher percentage of both total punches and power punches,” Canobbio said. “Clearly, the judges favored Foster. [Conceicao’s] Aggression. Conceição was the more aggressive fighter, and the numbers back that up.
“The effectiveness of a punch is not reflected in the statistics. We simply provide hard data. We cannot tell them how to use the numbers and, as we have said for over 30 years, we do not keep scores on fights.”
Foster called for an immediate rematch, but Arum simply replied, “We'll see.”
