The biggest fight of the year, Fury vs Usyk 2, is just a few days away and the heavyweight title fight will go down in history as the first boxing bout to feature an AI judge.
The AI experiment will be "free from bias and human error" according to Turki Alalshikh the man behind the tool branded by Ring Magazine, which he purchased in November.
Alalshikh has yet to reveal the technology behind the AI-powered judging, although according to Forbes it could be Jabbr, a company that has provided AI-powered stats for combat sports for a while now.
This is an interesting move for the world of boxing, considering the human-error that is often criticized when it comes to scoring fights. While the AI judge will not be used for the official scorecards in Fury vs Usyk 2, it could ultimately be incorporated into future title fights down the line.
This opens up a lot of discussion about using AI in sports, especially without human input. In Premier League Soccer, VAR (Video Assistant Referee), while controversial due to human error, is still overseen by a qualified team of officials who use the technology to come to a decision. Automated offside decisions are used across European soccer leagues, however, there's no room for interpretation with the offside rule: it's either onside or offside. With boxing, however, there's an element of subjectivity that comes into play, like the intent of a fighter for example, so relying solely on AI could in fact be a hindrance.
AI judging in boxing
AI models are trained on huge amounts of data, but that means there's a human element to the training that ultimately decides how any AI reacts to certain situations. Would an AI boxing judge's model lean in favor of specific fight styles? Would this lead to athletes evolving their skills to cater to an AI judge rather than the traditional aspects of the sport?
An AI judge in boxing is an intriguing development and one that might end up making its way into official scoring cards further down the line. I expect the best compromise is AI-powered monitoring of judges' scorecards to remove contentious decisions from the sport for good.
Looking for how to watch Fury vs Usyk 2? The first fight in May saw Oleksandr Usyk win by split decision in 12 rounds (115–112, 114–113, 113–114). As we head towards the second fight Fury is very slightly favored to win by some, but most critics find it hard to separate the two.
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