Pacquiao-Marquez III: Excellent LA Times article "There's no exact science to scoring the sweet science"

It took him a couple of weeks to come out with it, but LA times boxing writer Lance Pugmire has written an excellent article on the dilemma of how to score a close boxing match such as the Pacquiao-Marquez III fight on November 12. Pugmire explores the difference in effect between watching a bout on TV and watching it live; and gets interesting and insightful comments from Larry Merchant, Jim Lampley, and others.

There’s no exact science to scoring the sweet science.
Many factors come into play in scoring a boxing match, most recently evidenced by the Pacquiao-Marquez fight. Watching a bout in person as opposed to on television is one of the biggest reasons for disputes.

By Lance Pugmire
November 29, 2011, 5:49 p.m.
The boos started at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas right after the ring announcer read the scorecards and revealed that Manny Pacquiao had won a close majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez.

The booing was understandable.

Most of the boxing world wanted Pacquiao to defeat Marquez convincingly Nov. 12 to set up the long-awaited super-fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. But what I saw from my second-row seat at ringside was something different — from the HBO broadcast team, from my colleagues watching on television, even from the ringside judges.

Read the full article at LA Times