There's no exact science to scoring the sweet science

Many factors come into play in scoring a boxing match,Moncler outlet 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.
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,Moncler online from my colleagues watching on television, even from the ringside judges.

I scored the bout 115-113 — seven rounds to five — for Mexico's Marquez.

Honestly, I felt a bit guilty giving two other rounds to Pacquiao and tweeted right after the bout that Marquez was robbed by the official judges' scores of 116-112 and 115-113 for Pacquiao. The third judge had the fight a 114-114 draw.

Marquez wisely stayed back and landed the more powerful punches. Moncler vest Meanwhile, Pacquiao appeared to be desperately chasing scoring blows while Marquez merely waited and expertly found his target.

Of course, controversial decisions are part of boxing's tradition,Moncler jacket especially when it involves a big fight.

Nevertheless, a few of my boxing-savvy colleagues were surprised by my round-by-round scoring. Watching the fight on television,Moncler jackets they believed Pacquiao had won. Pacquiao landed 176 punches to Marquez's 138, according to ComuBox's statistics. Pacquiao also beat Marquez, 117-100, on power shots.

From my view, however, Marquez won most of the close rounds by landing the more substantial blows.

Now, something else was at play. The difference between watching a close fight on TV and in person.

"The two main variables in a heated boxing match are that on television, the 'tell' part of show and tell has an influence," said veteran HBO analyst Larry Merchant, who didn't work the Pacquiao-Marquez fight but was aware his longtime colleague Jim Lampley was effusive in praise for Pacquiao during the fight telecast. "In the arena, the number of fans for each fighter, and which side is more passionate, carries the weight.

"Pacquiao's fans were suppressed by the expectations that Manny's always powerful and dominant. Just winning no longer draws an emotional response from them and, meanwhile, Marquez was doing better than anyone expected. Those expectations influence how you see something happening."

Indeed, Pacquiao was booed fiercely as he tried to explain his 15th consecutive triumph.

Veteran Showtime boxing analyst Al Bernstein said he watched Pacquiao-Marquez from the Las Vegas media center and scored it 7-5 in rounds for Marquez.

"Television clearly gives you the better view of the fight unless you're on the apron, where the judges are," Bernstein said.

In a sampling of Twitter followers watching on television, @66jay66 said he believed Marquez "gave away the last two rounds" to allow a draw. Another, @dsmith3633, said Pacquiao's "lack of skill [was] exposed … just being an athlete only gets you so far" and he scored the fight for Marquez.

Lampley said he and HBO analysts Max Kellerman and Emanuel Steward were "categorical these were hard rounds to score" on the broadcast.

"After 25 years of doing this, I have a pretty good sense of what the judges respond to and who's doing the things the judges will recognize," Lampley said.

Lampley, Kellerman and Steward will also call the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch Saturday at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Boxing judges are schooled to take pre-fight expectations out of the equation. Boxers who force the action typically score better than fighters who are overly calculating.

"You want to win? Throw more punches," Lampley said. "Scoring for the aggressor helps the sport. Those are the types of fights we want to see."

Another reason it was a hard fight to score is there was little action at the start of most rounds. CompuBox numbers revealed Pacquiao and Marquez threw many more punches in the final minute of each round. And because Pacquaio landed more in those segments, he won the fight.

That didn't matter to Marquez's trainer, "Nacho" Beristain, who said his fighter's defeat was "robbery of the utmost."

Merchant recalled telling friends he watched the fight with, "There might be a surprise here." But he agreed that if someone scored the bout "seven rounds to five either way [it was] a reasonable view."

"Fans come to boxing with an emotional investment in one of these guys, and that's a big part of the experience that I love. The great writer Red Smith once said, 'If you want to know who won a fight, watch it with a 12-year-old. He'll tell you,' " Merchant said.

The Rise of Seoul

If any country is on the world’s radar, it’s South Korea, and this time it’s not all about the rocky relationship with its estranged brother in the north. In July, PyeongChang won the bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and much of the campaign’s success was attributed to figure-skating champion “Queen” Kim Yu Na, who set a new world record at the 2010 games. Belstaff In June, five K-pop groups marked the first time any Korean singer held a concert in Europe (tickets sold out in minutes). At last year’s Cannes, director Lee Chang Dong won best screenplay for Poetry, a poignant film about a woman who deals with her grandson’s crimes through poetry.Belstaff Outlet
And by now it’s well known that Seoul, home to more than 10.5 million people, is the most wired city on the planet, with nearly 95 percent of households hooked up to broadband. Deep in the subways riders young and old surf, text and watch live TV on their gadgets. Never mind that all this connectivity has led to a growing problem of Internet and gaming addicts, the worst case of which ended in the death of a four-month-old due to neglect by her gaming-obsessed parents: The city plans to increase broadband speed in every home to one gigabit per second by the end of 2012.Canada Goose Jackor
It’s not just about newsmakers and tech, though. Seoul was named the 2010 World Design Capital by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, an odd designation at first glance. An aerial view of the 235-square-mile metropolis shows streets weaving in and out in every direction, buildings high and low crammed onto each block. One minute you’re in a crowded market; a few steps away, there’s an ancient Buddhist temple. Identical concrete slabs still dominate the skyline. No, these aren’t public housing projects; rather, they’re apartment complexes, a result of the rapid—hasty—rebuilding of the country after the Korean War.Expedition Parka
“Until recently we were a ‘hard city,’ putting first and foremost construction, business, function and utility,” says Lim Ok Gi, director general of Seoul’s design bureau. “Today we’re being reborn as a ‘soft city’ of culture, the arts and design.” Joining this revival are international architects: Two years ago Rem Koolhaas created the Prada Transformer, a temporary pavilion that changed shapes for events, like an exhibit for the Italian designer. Last year’s Pritzker-prize winners Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa are designing a theater, slated to open by 2013, which will feature the same sound system as the Walt Disney concert hall’s. That same year Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Park & Plaza, a 914,932-square-foot cultural space of organic lines and futuristic shapes, will open along the walls of a gate built in 1396. The stadiumesque building will house galleries, libraries and museums with seven acres of parks, a welcome addition to this mega mall–dense district. U.S. architect Daniel Libeskind is behind DreamHub, a $28 billion project on Yongsan’s waterfront area. On more than 30 million square feet will be some 20 buildings—the tallest will be 2,180 feet, with developers rumored to be luring hotel chains such as the Four Seasons and Shangri-La—that will be arranged to resemble a crown from the Shilla Dynasty (a.d. 669–935) when it is completed in 2016.
A major part of beautifying Seoul centers around the Han River Renaissance project, which is turning a formerly dumpy waterway that flows through the city into a 319-mile-long promenade of bike paths, pools and parks; 28 bridges transform into works of light art, producing stunning night vistas. Fendi’s fall/winter show marked the debut of the Floating Island, a manmade three-islet archipelago. The event—streamed live, of course—was held on the main island, on a circular runway inside a curved glass building illuminated by neon lights. An impressive engineering feat, the archipelago weighs 5,434 tons and includes a restaurant, a café and concert halls, as well as a water sports center. A much smaller waterway, Cheongyecheon, a stream covered by roads in the 1970s, was restored in 2005 as a place for strolling, picnicking and viewing artworks. Near Incheon airport, ranked within the top three best airports in the last three years, is Songdo, a city built from the ground up as a utopia of sorts (see “The New Sustainable Cities”). “Seoul is a fascinating place,” says Hadid. “The dynamism of Korea’s development is breathtaking. You can sense the enthusiasm, ambition and boundless energy of the upcoming generation.”
Often overlooked as an Asian destination, Korea has seen a steady rise in visitors. Last year there were more than 6.3 million tourists (nearly half from Japan and China), a 32 percent increase from 2005. This transformation of Seoul into a global city has led to a surge of new hotels, restaurants and shops, with one of the most apparent changes in the last few years being the restaurant scene, as young chefs introduce innovative cuisine as well as Western food done right (gone are the days when T.G.I. Friday’s was the city’s go-to non-Korean eatery). On any given night, restaurants and cafés bustle with savvy diners. Eating out is no longer an occasion; much like New York, it’s the norm.