Decisions in combat sports

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In combat sports, a decision is a result of the fight or bout that does not end in a knockout, submission or other finish, in which the (usually) three judges' scorecards are consulted to determine the winner; a majority of judges must agree on a result. The judges' result can either award a win, loss, or draw.

Contents

If no judges are in attendance for scoring and the fight reaches the time limit with no finish, the fight goes to no decision.

Scoring

If a fight reaches the time limit with no finish, the outcome of fight is decided based on the judges' scorecards. In most professional boxing and mixed martial arts fights, there are three judges.

In a "ten-point system", a judge must award the fighter whom they judged as having "won the round" ten points, while the other fighter receives nine points or fewer. If a judge feels that there was no clear winner in a round, they must award both fighters ten points. This does not include point deductions from referees; rounds where neither fighter scores ten points can occur.

At the end of the bout, each judge will tally the scores to determine which fighter had won, if any, according to the judge's tally; a fighter that "won" a majority of rounds usually emerges with more points. If a fighter ends up with a higher number of points, that fighter "won" on that judge's scorecard. A fighter has to "win" on at least two scorecards to win the fight. If neither fighter "won" on at least two scorecards, the match is a draw; in championship fights, the champion usually retains the title in a draw, if not, it is "vacated" - the title belongs to no fighter and is vacant. The scores do not necessarily have to be identical in unanimous decisions.

Summary

Judges' scorecards winnerScorecards tallyDecisionFight resultExample
RedBlueDraw
RedRedRed300 Unanimous decision Red corner wins Mike Tyson vs. Tony Tucker
drawBlueBlue021 Majority decision Blue corner wins Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Márquez III
BlueRedRed210 Split decision Red corner wins Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather
BlueReddraw111 Split draw Tie (draw) Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis
drawdrawRed102 Majority draw Tie (draw) Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins
drawdrawdraw003 Unanimous draw Tie (draw) Chris John vs. Rocky Juarez I

Other decisions

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