Last week the German Boxing Commission (BDB) sent out a press release claiming that the WBO is suspending Judge Paul Thomas for six months due to his scoring of the recent Abraham vs. Stieglitz III title fight in Germany. Abraham walked away with a split decision, regaining the WBO?s version of the super middleweight crown. Paul Thomas scored it 115-110 for Abraham, Clark Sammartino scored it 114-111 for Abraham, and Michael Pernick saw it 113-112 for Stieglitz.
Since the BDB?s press release, the WBO issued a statement denying the suspension of the long-time WBO referee and judge from the UK. However, due to the publicity following the German Commission?s announcement of the alleged suspension, the Pod Index, LLC?a statistics company focused on boxing and MMA judging?has commissioned an official scoring review of the fight.
Five professional judges, all with strong track records of consistency and world title fight experience, were asked to score the fight after studying a video.
Three of the five anonymous judges scored the bout for Abraham. All five judges commented that the bout was very difficult to score, with many very close rounds. A few also commented that the match was sloppy and that Ring Generalship and Effective Aggression were the determining factors in many rounds because of the lack of a clear advantage for either fighter in Clean Punching.
5 Anonymous Judges
Actual WBO Judges
?Facts are stubborn things?.??John Adams
?Without data, you?re just another person with an opinion.??Unknown
Of the eight judges scoring the bout, Paul Thomas was only in the minority in one round. In the first round, six judges scored it for Robert Stieglitz, while Thomas and one of the anonymous judges scored it for Arthur Abraham. In the remaining eleven rounds, Thomas was either in the majority, or part of a four-four split.
Based on this study, it?s impossible to understand why Paul Thomas should be suspended. His scorecard was right in line overall and on a round-by-round basis with the other judges. This fight was just one of those ugly, sloppy contests where scoring was difficult. Many rounds were good candidates to be scored 10-10 or 10-9.5 (if the half point system was in play).
Statistics on all boxing judges can be found at www.PodIndex.org.
