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Page 1 of 2  MuayThai is a combat sport with a growing international profile but limited research conducted into judging practices and processes. Problems with judging of other subjectively judged combat sports have caused controversy at major international tournaments. ABSTRACT
MuayThai is a combat sport with a growing international profile but limited research conducted into judging practices and processes. Problems with judging of other subjectively judged combat sports have caused controversy at major international tournaments that have resulted in changes to scoring methods. Nationalistic bias has been central to these problems and has been identified across a range of sports. The aim of this study was to examine nationalistic bias in MuayThai. Data were collected from the International Federation of MuayThai Amateur (IFMA) World Championships held in Almaty, Kazakhstan September 2003 and comprised of tournament results from 70 A-class MuayThai bouts each judged by between five and nine judges. Bouts examined featured 62 competitors from 21 countries and 25 judges from 11 countries. Results suggested that nationalistic bias was evident. The bias observed equated to approximately one round difference between opposing judges over the course of a bout (a mean of 1.09 (SE=0.50) points difference between judges with opposing affilations). The number of neutral judges used meant that this level of bias generally did not influence the outcome of bouts. Future research should explore other ingroup biases, such as nearest neighbour bias and political bias as well as investigating the feasibility adopting an electronic scoring system.
INTRODUCTION
Background
One combat sport with a rapidly growing international profile is MuayThai. The national sport of Thailand is increasing in popularity with fights regularly screened on satellite and terrestrial television channels. Although professional MuayThai is seen more as a spectator rather than a participation sport, amateur participation and competition is growing in popularity with an estimated one million participants worldwide (Gartland et al.,2001). More than sixty-nine countries from five continents sent teams to compete in the 2004 Amateur World Cup (IFMA, 2005) and a 100 counties are predicted to attend the 2006 amateur world championships (Tapsuwan, 2005).
The sport involves a style of boxing where competitors try to win bouts by scoring points, knockouts or stoppages using full contact blows. Legal techniques include a variety of punches, elbows, knees strikes, kicks and grappling techniques. Target areas for strikes include anywhere on the body except for deliberate strikes to the groin area. All bouts are held in an international style boxing ring with competitors using six, eight or ten ounce boxing gloves. Amateur competition has thirteen weight classes and the professional sport has eighteen (WMC, 1995). Professional fights involve five three-minute rounds punctuated by two-minute rest periods, while international level amateur bouts involve four two-minute rounds with one-minute rest periods. All bouts are controlled by a referee from inside the ring, and scored by three judges in professional fights, and up to five judges plus a jury panel in amateur competitions. While those competing at professional level wear limited protective equipment that includes boxing gloves, mouth guard and groin guard, those competing in amateur competition wear headguards, body protectors, elbow pads and shin-guards. In the amateur sport, competitors are identified by the colour of the protection, shorts and vests worn; these are coloured either blue or red depending on the corner the boxers are competing out of for a particular bout.
The professional sport is well established with a notable history; references to the activity dating back to the eleventh century and written records of formal competition dating back to the sixteenth century (Wongbandue, 1998). However, amateur MuayThai is a rather recent innovation being introduced with the formation of the Amateur MuayThai Association (AMTA) in 1990. The organisation of this body and its international arm, the International Federation of MuayThai Amateur (IFMA), led to MuayThai being included as a demonstration sport in the Asian games (Prowsree, 2000).
MuayThai judging
Judges in MuayThai have to make similar types of decisions to those made in professional boxing. However, there are differences, particularly in the professional sport. In MuayThai, judges have to consider several factors to decide who wins a fight. Firstly, judges have to make a comparison of the number of legal blows each contestant lands on legitimate targets and decide who landed the greater number of blows (Boxing Board of Sport, 2002). Secondly, judges need to decide on the relative power of attacks hitting their target (Boxing Board of Sport, 2002). Along with the number of blows landing, the perceived strength of blows is also considered in deciding the winner of a fight.
The amateur sport uses a '20 point must system' this requires a judge to award 20 points to the competitor they consider to have won the round and a lower score (usually 19 points) to the loser. At the end of four rounds, each judge totals their scorecard to decide the winner. If the points they awarded are equal, judges award the decision the fighter who they feel has tried to attack the most. If this is similar, judges are directed to award a win to the boxer who they feel has displayed the best style or has shown the best defence (IFMA, und).
The professional sport uses a 'ten point must system' similar in principle to the amateur system: the winner of the round is awarded 10 points and the loser awarded less; usually 9 points. However, unlike amateur MuayThai, professional fights in Thailand are judged as a whole with individual rounds not having equal emphasis. This allows judges to make a retrospective assessment of the effect of cumulative blows over the early rounds. Emphasis is given to a fighter finishing the strongest over the last three rounds (Myers, 2005).
With fights judged as a whole rather than in equal round units, when there is a clear difference between fighters the fight is usually scored 49:47. Closer fights are scored 49:48. It is usual for professional judges in Thailand to make notes during a fight and complete the scoring for rounds after the fight has finished. However, this is impossible in championship bouts where scorecards are collected after each round. It is also usual in Thailand for a judge to avoid awarding a total score of 50 points for a boxer; the maximum score for a fight usually being 49 points (although it is possible for a fighter to score 50). This adjustment is to give credit to a boxer who tries to fight, but has not managed to win.
Bias in judging
No published studies have been conducted specifically on MuayThai judging and evidence of any problems with judging bias is purely anecdotal. However, there is enough evidence from other subjectively judged sports to suggest that similar problems could surface in international competition. Subjective sports in major international competitions such as the Olympic Games have not escaped judging controversies with many of these the result of nationalistic bias. Several major judging biases have been established empirically in subjectively judged sports (Vanden Auweele et al., 2004).
Bias has been identified in combat other sports. Balmer et al., 2005 found evidence of bias in European championship boxing, where a home advantage was evident. The authors found that a 'home' boxer tends to be awarded closely fought rounds more often than the 'away' boxer. While some types of bias are not obvious across all sports, the 'patriotism effect' is evident across a wide range of sports in the form of nationalistic bias. Nationalistic bias, has been identified in figure skating (Campbell and Galbraith, 1996; Seltzer and Glass, 1991; Whissell et al., 1993), gymnastics (Ansorge and Scheer, 1988; Ste Marie, 1996), ski jumping (Zitzewitz, 2002) and rhythmic gymnastics (Popovic, 2000). These sports require judges to make subjective decisions to decide outcome similar to MuayThai.
Having identified bias, subjectively judged sports have adopted different approaches to adjusting scoring to avoid or lessen problems of nationalistic bias. Some of these approaches have been statistical approaches, others technological. For example, several proposals were made to try to reduce bias in ice-skating. These included: increasing the number of judges from 9 to 14; using median scores to rank skaters; and using trimmed means to try to control the influence of extreme scores on overall position (Zitzewitz, 2002). On the other hand, two combat sports, Taekwondo and amateur boxing, opted for solutions that involve technology.
In 1990, after serious problems with judging at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988 (Maese, 2004), the Association Internationale de Box (AIBA) made electronic scoring (the Chowdhry Scoring System) compulsory for international competitions (AIBA, 2003). This system requires each of the five judges at ringside to use a keyboard with 4 buttons: red and blue 'point keys' for recording scoring blows, and red and blue 'W keys' for recording warnings. When a judge sees a scoring blow they press a button and computer software records the point awarded and opens a one-second window giving time for other judges to confirm the score. If three or more judges press the same key within that second, the score is "accepted" for that boxer and recorded. Bouts are awarded to the boxer who has the highest total of blows (AIBA, 2003).
Taekwondo, another Olympic combat sport that involves kicking as well as punching, also decided to use technology in a campaign to improve its reputation after judging problems. The World Taekwondo Federation commissioned electronic protective equipment that registers a score when contact is made. When electronic scoring is used, the electronic body armour automatically records body blows. Head blows are recorded by two judges using an electronic scoring instrument similar to the one used in amateur boxing. One point is awarded for attack on trunk protector, two points for attack on face and an extra point awarded if the contestant is knocked down and receives a count from the referee (WTF, 2005). Along with electronic scoring, the rules of Taekwondo make a specific reference to avoiding using any officials with the same nationality as either of the competitors being assigned to a contest. However, an exception is made when there are not enough referees or judges to make this possible (WTF, 2005).
Given that Olympic recognition is a major goal for MuayThai's international development (Tapsuwan, 2005), an investigation into judging would contribute to the sport's credibility. This is particularly pertinent given the major changes made to scoring in Olympic combat sports. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of nationalistic bias in international MuayThai judging and to explore possible strategies to reduce bias. It was hypothesised that evidence of nationalistic bias will be observed.
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