No, I didn't pony up the 100 bucks to watch the Mayweather/McGregor "fight" for a couple reasons.
Yes, I could have afforded it but, hey, a C-note is a C-note. That can buy a week's worth of groceries and/or a couple tanks of gas. Besides, who to root for? Both are pompous arrogant asses. The good news was -- one of them had to lose. It's goes without saying what the bad news was. We know how that turned out. And I'd like to think most would agree it was more a spectacle than a true competition between pugilists.
But the Golovkin/Alvarez fight was different. These are two world class boxers that went into the fight with a combined 86-1 record. And at a "discounted" $80 it was mighty tempting. Yet in the end yours truly didn't click on the "buy" button for this one either (though I had my finger on it for a while wavering back and forth).
Thing is, I'm so very glad I didn't, because I would have been outraged.
After all the build up and hype -- it ends in a draw?
So basically the $30 million or so generated by the paying fans one way or the other was for naught? As in nothing was accomplished? Like it never happened? Preposterous.
You just know there will have to be a re-match and the whole charade will play itself out again.
This should NOT have been allowed to happen.
Boxing and its rules are stupid enough already without having championship matches end in a tie. It's an insult -- slap in the face -- to those that traveled to watch it live or ponied up the bucks to watch it on pay-per-view.
Surely there must be a way to avoid such a thing happening again.
Speaking of obtuse, why is it that the famed "10 point must system" whereby the judges have to give the winner of each round 10 points isn't scored more realistically? OK, if a round if fairly close, score it 10-9. But if a guy gets knocked down or otherwise beaten up throughout those three minutes, they only score it 10-8. That's wrong. Depending on how lop-sided the round is, score it 10-6, 10-3, or even 10-0. What's wrong with that?
Second, we've all heard how some judges can go back at the end of the fight and change their scoring for earlier rounds. That smacks of potential corruption, so eliminate it.
Third, boxing is the only sport where nobody knows what the score is until it's all over. So post the scores on a scoreboard like every other sport does throughout the fight. The fighters, their corners, the fans both at the arena and at home will know, round by round, who's ahead and behind. Once the score is locked in by each of the ring-side judges after every round, we wouldn't have to listen to all the speculation/blather, which is usually wrong, about who's winning. It's right up there on the board for everybody to see.
[Idle thought. Some claim if a fighter knew he was hopelessly behind, he might "mail it in". Perhaps. But if a baseball team is down 10 runs in the ninth inning, they don't just walk off and forfeit. They play it out. And you never know when a spectacular rally and/or knockout might happen.]
Finally, if the totals of the judges amount to a draw after 12 rounds of boxing, do what all the teams in other sports do. Call it extra innings or overtime. In the case of boxing, a 13th round, which the judges would be prohibited from ruling as a 10-10 round. They have to pick one or the other.
End of fight and we would have a winner. Hey, championship fights used to go a full 15 rounds in the old days, so I don't want to hear about how a potential 13th round would exactly be the end of the world.
One way or the other, this "draw" stuff has got to go. Drawing is for artists, chess players, and old-time gunslingers -- not boxers.
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