Big congrats to former Victory8 and world team members Danilo Creati and Linn Sandstrom on great wins in Brisbane last night.
"Dash" Creati put on a clinic, besting the outstanding Cameron Hammond, an Olympian who had won 18 of 19 pro fights. Creati was untouchable, winning by shutout and dropping his opponent twice during the contest.
Linn Sandstrom showed the benefits of a great camp, and better shot selection, in her victory over Ali Jensen. In an entertaining match, the Swedish born Sandstrom sent her opponent to the floor twice, but plenty of punches were still exchanged till the final bell.
Philippines Joe Noynay had a below par performance, stopped by a beautiful left hook in the second round from a vengeful Liam Wilson. Noynay weighed in 4kg over and his poor showing remains a puzzle.

So, you are watching a boxing match and it is clear that Boxer A is getting his faced punched in by the Boxer B.  After many rounds, the final bell rings and you are 100% certain that the Boxer B had won the fight but suddenly judges award the win to the Boxer A and you are left thinking "what just happened?".  This post will shed some light as to how this could easily happen.

At VSP, we have our own boxing gym (VSP Boxing) where boxers under company management are trained for professional matches.  We also have our own boxing promotions company (VSP Promotions).  We even have our own boxing event brand called Victory8.  What I am about to tell you is something which happens behind the curtains that may help you understand why some boxing matches end up favoring a boxer who you are quite sure lost the match.

To fully understand what happens, you need to put yourself in the shoe of the Boxer and his/her manager. the manager generally thinks that if the boxer has an "unbeaten" record, it will help him go up the rank.  This achieves two objectives.  It can lead to the manager asking more money for the boxer to fight from the promoter.  Secondly, the manager is hoping that a streak of victorious matches will allow the boxer to fight for the championship title which can be quite lucrative.  Depending on the country/region, a regional championship title can earn 5~10,000 USD while world title can be anywhere from 50,000~1,000,000 dollars earning per fight depending on many factors which I will post another time.  So, if you are the manager for the boxer, you would think your job is to try to get the boxer to fight an opponent whom you are quite confident can be beaten.  (This often leads to a terrible quality fight because it is lopsided match).

Promoter (that's us) is the company that organizes and pays for everything and everyone.  Here, "everyone" includes the boxers, referees, and the judges.  Now, what happens when boxers are managed by a company instead of an individual? And what if that company happens to also be the "Promoter" of an event in which those boxers fight?  

Let's think about a situation whereVSP has organized a boxing event in Vietnam between our Vietnamese fighters and Thai fighters. To make the scoring "fair", VSP flies in referees & judges (R&J) from Japan, China, and the Philippines.  The promoter would be paying for their flight tickets, their fees, hotel, meals, as well as transportation.  Lobbying can start even before the R&J arrive in Vietnam.  

How about this: The promoter upgrades the flights of R&J to a business class and personally picks them up from the airport.  The promoter then put them in a nice hotel with complementary drinks and takes them out to good restaurants.  There, he talks about how wonderful some of the boxers are in the event (our boxers of course).  The promoter never once said who the judges should vote for but as you can see, the R&J may have started to develop a certain bias.

Did you know that R&J are often part time jobs for many? Imagine you are one of the judges invited to come to Vietnam.  You are treated very well, paid well, and even taken around by the promoter for shopping.  You know that some of the boxers in the event are managed by the promoter.  Now, let's say the fight was a close fight, who would you favor?  If you voted against the promoter's boxer, maybe you won't be invited in the next event.  Perhaps your professionalism would be so solid that none of these treatments would affect your judgement but would you be able to say the same for all of your peers?

At VSP, we don't believe in setting up our boxers to win in a match. How would a boxer improve if he is fighting an opponent worse than him all the time? We think this is a remanent of the old ways. Instead, we match our fighters such that the spectators would enjoy watching!  What is the point of putting up boring shit fights that nobody wants to watch?  We tell all our boxers, "It is not our job to make you win.  It is our job to give you worthy challengers that will push yourself to be better" The boxing world need to change and embrace a new paradigm where the focus should be putting up fights that are 50:50 and that leads to exciting fights that viewers can appreciate and thus drive more following.  

Let's change the old ways and make Boxing Great Again!