Why Boxing Should Use Instant Replay

The sport of boxing needs to use instant replay. Many other sports such as American football utilize instant replay to determine those tough calls such as was the receiver inside or outside of bounds?

Boxing can benefit greatly from instant replay as well. Was the fighter's cut from a punch or a head butt? Did the fighter's glove touch the canvas? Did the fighter beat the count? Was that knock out punch right on the belt line or did he just get his testicles KO'd?

Tonight HBO's commentating crew argued for the use of instant replay many times during the Cintron vs Martinez fight. Max Kellerman seemed to be all for it.

Max used instant replay over and over again to determine whether Cintron was knocked down by a head butt or a punch by Martinez. Instant replay made it clear that it was indeed a punch and not a head butt that knocked Cintron down. Max even used instant replay from various angles to determine if Cintron beat the 10 count from the ref. In Max's words, Cintron beat the count by a milli second.

Former undisputed Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis was quite hesitant to endorse the use of instant replay for he felt it would take too long to review the footage. Max quickly rebutted that it took him only 20 seconds to determine that Cintron was indeed knocked down by a punch and that he just beat the 10 count.

Legendary unofficial ringside judge, Harold Lederman argued that it is the ref who is supposed to catch it and make the official call. But what if ref does not catch it? I have sat ringside at many fights and there are certainly things that I caught that the ref did not and same with the viewers at home, and vice-versa.

So the only way to catch this is to review instant replay. Imagine all of these famous fighters such as Bernard Hopkins and Evander Holyfield who had careers with hiding headbutts and rabbit punches away from the ref's had instant replay already been in use?

Remember Open Scoring? After a certain amount of rounds Michael Buffer would announce what the official judges score cards were so everyone knew exactly how the fight was going.

If boxing can try out something as new and risky as Open Scoring, then we can definitely give instant replay a try.