DECISIONS & SCORECARDS
READING TIME · 1 MIN
When a fight goes the distance, three judges decide it. Here's how their cards combine into a verdict — and how to read one.
THREE JUDGES
HOW THE CARDS COMBINE
Three judges score the fight independently, round by round. At the final bell each adds up their own card, and the fighter ahead is that judge's winner. Win two of the three cards and you win the fight. The totals are never pooled across judges.
THE VERDICT
UNANIMOUS, MAJORITY, SPLIT
A unanimous decision is all three judges for the same fighter. A split decision is two for one fighter and the third for the other. A majority decision is two for one fighter and the third scoring it even.
Draws come the same three ways: all three level, two level and one with a winner, or one judge each way and one level.
| JUDGE 1 | JUDGE 2 | JUDGE 3 | VERDICT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29-28 | 29-28 | 29-28 | UNANIMOUS DECISIONRED CORNER |
| 29-28 | 29-28 | 28-29 | SPLIT DECISIONRED CORNER |
| 29-28 | 29-28 | 28-28 | MAJORITY DECISIONRED CORNER |
| 29-28 | 28-29 | 28-28 | SPLIT DRAW |
NO RESULT
NO-CONTESTS
A no-contest means the fight gets no winner at all. It usually follows an accidental foul, like an eye poke or a low blow, that stops the bout before enough rounds are complete, or a result overturned afterward, for example after a failed drug test.
ON PAPER
READING AN OFFICIAL SCORECARD
An official scorecard has a row for each judge and a column for each round, with each judge's total at the end. A point deduction shows as a marked or circled number on the round it was taken in.
In a fight's recap here, the judges' scorecards sit next to your card and the community's: their totals as soon as the result is official, their rounds once the scorecards are published.
On this card two judges had red 29-28 and the third had blue 28-29, so red wins a split decision. The judges disagreed about rounds 1 and 2; nobody disagreed about round 3.
More: The post-fight recap| JUDGE | R1 | R2 | R3 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judge 1 | 10-9 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 29-28 |
| Judge 2 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 29-28 |
| Judge 3 | 9-10 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 28-29 |