Expert: Melanie Ley - 8/19/2008

Question
I've been a boxing fan for many years, but mostly only see amateurs every 4 years in the Olympics and even after reading your answer I'm still confused as to how a tie is broken. Alot of the problem is that I don't really have an understanding of some of the most basic terminology.
Let's assume a match has ended in a 4 to 4 tie (it's the 2008 olympics we have a ridiculously low score<G>) - What IS the accepted score? Is it the ACTUAL score?  What exactly is being counted to come up with a winner? Is it EVERY judges score count no matter if 2 other judges counted it or not? So one boxer had all 5 judges agreeing for a total of 20, while the other boxer only had the minimum 3 judges count his punches for a score of 12? Am I WAYYY off base here? I'd appreciate it if you can clear this up.
Thanks
Jeff "Kid White Chocolate" Forrest

Answer
Unfortunately, we are not seeing the individual accepted scores of each judge.  Each judge has an accepted score for all three rounds.  When you have a tie, the computer automatically throws out the high and the low scores for both boxers and adds up the remaing three for each judge.  

With the current scoring system, 3 out of 5 judges must push the button for the same boxer within a one second window.  If this happens, the computer "accepts" the score and you see the point(s) pop up.  The highest accepted points determines the winner.  

Individual scores are the total number of times each judge pushes the button for both boxers.  

This is the best way I can explain it.  Hope it helps.  Feel free to ask more questions.