Corey Erdman gives the recent middlweight clash between Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam and Avtandil Khurtsidze the scorecard treatment.

A bit of controversy has been brewing in the boxing community surrounding the October 30 interim WBA middleweight title bout between Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam and Avtandil Khurtsidze. Of course, since N'Dam is from France and the fight took place there, the natural, and very fair reaction is that some home cooking was on the stove. However, as you'll find in the fight, it is an extreme version of a bout between a pressure fighter and a mover, which really makes one think hard about what is actually taking place in the bout when scoring it.

Was N'Dam running? Was Khurtsidze too open to getting hit when coming forward?

What folks want to know is: Was N'Dam given preferential treatment at home, or was the decision fair?

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Andrew Fruman gives the scorecard treatment to this past Saturday night's 140lb clash between Zab Judah and Lucas Matthysse.

A 114-113 tally either way seemed fair.  That was my first reaction to Michael Buffer's announcement of Zab Judah's split decision victory over Lucas Matthysse.  At the same time, it didn't feel like a Judah win.  The Argentinean fighter had nearly run the Brooklyn product out of the ring over the final few rounds, and clearly was the stronger man at the finish.

The question was... did Judah bank enough early rounds to justify the verdict.

Only one way to find out, and that's to take a closer look with an eye on scoring.  An eye on scoring being the key here, because most of us don't score a fight all that carefully when we watch the first time.  We're watching to enjoy the fight, and it's a difficult task to separate the fighters when one's focus isn't specifically on keeping score - especially in close rounds.

So let's get to it...

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Corey Erdman gives the scorecard treatment to this past Friday night's minimumweight battle between Oleydong Sithsamerchai and Pornsawan Porpramook.

Any time you read a headline stating that a champion from Thailand fought to a draw in his home country, face it, you're suspicious.

On Saturday, WBC minimumweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai drew challenger Pornsawan Porpramook, in a rematch of their 2008 bout also staged in Thailand. Wire reports suggested that Oleydong won by the "slightest of margins" and that the two fought "toe-to-toe."

But rather than relying on stereotypes and prejudice surrounding foreign boxing judges, all the while ignoring a whole world of boxing outside of premium cable companies, let's break down Oleydong-Pornsawan II to see just how close, and how fair it was.

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Corey Erdman gives the scorecard treatment to this past Saturday's 140lb clash between Marcos Maidana and DeMarcus Corley.

There's nothing more common these days than claims of robbery in bouts that wind up in the judges' hands. One would think that we lived in the newspaper decision era, or in the time of mafia control with the amount of supposedly "suspect" verdicts handed out on a weekly basis.

To provide some clarity, let's go through this past weekend's WBA light welterweight title bout between Marcos Maidana and DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley from Argentina. Many believe that Corley may have been robbed, but was the fight one-sided enough to deserve that label?

Here you will find a round by round breakdown of the bout, as well as video links (at the bottom), so you can decide for yourself.

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Bantamweights Anselmo Moreno and Nehomar Cermeno will be renewing hostilities this Saturday night in Panama.  Their first battle fought back in March was a very tight affair, with Moreno emerging with a split decision victory after twelve tense rounds.  Some observers felt that the classy southpaw had indeed done enough to earn the win, while others were of the opinion that Cermeno actually deserved to walk away the winner.

With the fighters ready to get it on once more, it's a good time to give the first encounter the scorecard treatment...

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by Andrew Fruman

When Andriy Kotelnik got the call to face Devon Alexander, the match-up wasn't looked upon with too much enthusiasm.  Alexander had just made a very strong statement to rest of the junior-welterweight class with a knock-out of rock jawed slugger Juan Urango, while Kotelnik had come up well short to Amir Khan in his most recent bout.

Given the difficulties Kotelnik had against the quick handed and fleet footed British fighter, it was expected he'd face a similar struggle against Alexander.  Alexander's Too Fast - that was the theme in just about every breakdown of the match-up and predictions of a shut-out were fairly common.

Instead, we were treated to one of the more entertaining and surprising bouts of the year so far, with Kotelnik's steady pressure causing the talented youngster all kinds of trouble.  Then came the decision - 116-112 Alexander on all 3 cards - and controversy quickly followed.

Was Kotelnik hard done by or was Alexander a worthy winner?

Here's my card along with an explanation for how I scored each round...

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Watching live this past Saturday night, I didn't have any problems with the decision handed out for the David Tua vs Monte Barrett heavyweight clash.  I didn't keep a running scorecard, but it felt like the type of bout that neither man deserved to lose and the draw verdict (115-111 Tua, 113-113, 113-113) seemed like a fair outcome.

But seeing that at least a few fans are up in arms over the decision on the various forums - feeling that Barrett was a clear winner -  I decided it was worth watching again... so with pen and paper in hand, I gave the heavyweight battle a second, and much more careful look.

Here's my card with an explanation for the scoring of each round...

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by Andrew Fruman

In one of the best fights of the year so far, bantamweights Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares battled to a twelve round majority draw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.  The official scores were 114-114 twice, and 115-113 in favor of Abner Mares.

Showtime's press row were in agreement that the bout was close, but all 3 writers had Mares in front, by scores of 115-113 twice and a more lop-sided tally of 116-112.  Judging by the comments on twitter, the majority of observers were in agreement with the unofficial press-row tallies.

I was one of the rare scorers to actually have Perez out in front, with my live card favoring him by a 115-114 total.  I had a feeling I may have given Perez the benefit of the doubt in a couple close ones that possibly deserved to have gone to Mares, so I sat down after the fight to score it carefully...

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