Saturday’s huge heavyweight rematch will have a fourth judge scoring the fight, albeit unofficially and in a very different way.
An artificial intelligence-powered judge will be programmed to score all 12 rounds of Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 2 in what is a groundbreaking experiment for boxing judging, Turki Alalshikh announced Tuesday afternoon.
The AI judge’s final verdict will not impact the official result of the fight, but it will serve as a trial to monitor how accurately a non-human device can score a boxing match.
Scoring has long been a topic of controversy in combat sports, particularly in boxing. Seemingly every week questionable scorecards are turned in and contentious decisions are handed out, but nothing ever really changes. Observers and pundits complain about decisions for several days after a fight, but by the following week, those complaints are forgotten and another disputed result takes center stage.
Attempts have been made in the past to change the way boxing is scored. The WBC allows open scoring for its title fights, subject to the approval of local commissions. With open scoring, boxers are made aware of how the three judges sitting ringside are scoring the fight at certain points.
When O’Shaquie Foster traveled to Cancun to defend his WBC super featherweight title against Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez in October 2023, open scoring was utilized. Foster was told that he was behind on two scorecards after 10 rounds and became far more aggressive in the remaining six minutes, securing a stoppage victory with 22 seconds to go in the final round.
AI-powered judging could be the unbiased solution boxing has been looking for. There will, however, be concerns that the sport could become a mere points-scoring system if technological judging cannot take into account the subjective elements involved, such as the impact of punches and how much damage is caused over the course of a round.
The first fight between Usyk and Fury went to a split decision this past May, with Usyk winning to become undisputed heavyweight champion. Fury still insists he won the bout and is aiming to put it right this time around. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman asked for a panel of six judges for the first Usyk vs. Fury fight, rather than the usual three, in an attempt to have a more unanimous result, but the petition never came to fruition.
