Decisions in combat sports
In combat sports, a decision is a result of the fight or bout that does not end in a knockout in which the judges' scorecards are consulted to determine the winner; a majority of judges must agree on a result. A fight can either end in a win for an athlete, a draw, or a no decision.
Scoring
If a fight ends with neither fighter getting knocked out, the fight is decided based on the judges' scorecards. In most professional boxing and mixed martial arts fights, there are usually three judges.
In a "ten-point must system", a judge must award a fighters whom s/he judged as have "won the round" ten points, while the other boxer receives nine points or less. If a judge feels that there was a no clear winner in a round, s/he must award both fighters ten points. This doesn't include point deductions from referees, so there could be rounds where neither fighter scored ten points.
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 than "won" a majority of rounds usually emerges with more points. If a fighter ends up with a higher amount of points, that fighter "won" on that judges' scorecard. A fighter has to "win" in at least two scorecards to win the fight. If neither fighter "won" in at least two scorecards, the match is a draw; in championship fights, the champion usually retains the title in a draw. The scores do not necessarily have to be identical in unanimous decisions.
Summary
- In the table below, the bout is fought by fighters from the blue and red corners and no knockouts occurred.
| Judges' scorecards winner | Scorecards tally | Decision | Fight result | Example | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Blue | Draw | ||||||
| Red | Red | Red | 3 | 0 | 0 | Unanimous decision | Red corner wins | Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier II |
| draw | Blue | Blue | 0 | 2 | 1 | Majority decision | Blue corner wins | Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez III |
| Blue | Red | Red | 2 | 1 | 0 | Split decision | Red corner wins | Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather |
| Blue | Red | draw | 1 | 1 | 1 | Split draw | Tie (draw) | Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis |
| draw | draw | Red | 1 | 0 | 2 | Majority draw | Tie (draw) | Bernard Hopkins vs. Jean Pascal |
| draw | draw | draw | 0 | 0 | 3 | Unanimous draw | Tie (draw) | Chris John vs. Rocky Juarez I |
Other resolutions
A fight can end in other circumstances:
- A "technical decision" happens when a fight has to be stopped because of an accidental injury. If the fight surpassed a certain number of rounds, judges' scorecards can be used to determine a winner, as above.
- A "no contest" is used to describe a fight that ends for reasons outside the fighters' hands, which results in neither a win, a loss or a draw.
- A "technical draw" occurs when officials cannot determine a winner.
- A "referee technical decision" happens when a fighter or his corner refuses to continue. The offending fighter loses the fight.
- In a "disqualification", the disqualified fighter loses the fight.
- In double disqualifications, or both fighters were disqualified, the fight is ruled as a "no contest".
- A submission happens when a fighter yields to the opponent; the fighter that yields loses the fight.
- A "technical submission" happens if a referee or doctor stops the fight when a fighter is unable or is unwilling to submit.