TYSON FURY’s do-or-die rematch with Oleksandr Usyk will sensationally feature a FOURTH judge.
But it won’t be a human scoring the crucial rounds in Saturday night’s eagerly-anticipated Saudi showdown for the unified heavyweight titles.
Artificial intelligence will be tasked with scoring the desert dust-up, which will attract the eyes of the entire sporting world.
Saudi boxing supremo Turki Alalshikh revealed the introduction of an AI judge on Tuesday night.
The AI judge, however, won’t have any impact on the result of the Riyadh rumble.
Ring Magazine supremo Alalshikh wrote on X: “For the first time ever, an AI-powered judge will monitor the fight.
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“Free from bias and human error brought to you by The Ring.
“This groundbreaking experiment, which won’t impact the official results, debuts during the biggest fight of the century, #Usyk2Fury, on December 21.”
Alalshikh’s short-notice revelation quickly became the talk of fight world.
One fan wrote on X: “It would be awesome if this fixes the judging issue in combat sports.
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“I’m sure it’s a couple of years out from being able to actually be used, but the concept is exciting.”
Another said: “This is gonna be revolutionary.”
And another said: “Loved this. [It] will automatically put judges on high alert.
“The future of boxing is safe with you taking over.”
One remarked: “Wow! I can’t wait to see how this goes.”
Another chimed in: “Boxing VAR in the making?”
Several boxing fans, however, are sceptical about the effectiveness of AI scoring fights.
One said: “Boxing scoring is subjective.. So what are the rules you put into the bot?
“What you like to see or was it more general than that?”
Another said: “AI can’t distinguish effectiveness?”
The judges were called upon in Fury and Usyk’s May melee, which went the distance.
Usyk was crowned the first undisputed king of the heavyweights in nearly 25 years courtesy of a split decision victory.
Fury, 36, was adamant he did enough to have his hand raised and has vowed not to leave Saturday’s slugfest in the hand of the judges again.
The former unified heavyweight champion said: “I’ve always been a bad man my whole life, and I’m still one today at nearly 40 years old, a few years off 40.
“I’m going to go in there with destroy mode.
“Last time, I went to box him, I was being cautious.
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“Anybody can get caught as we have seen in a lot of these heavyweight fights.
“But this time I’m not going for a points decision. I’m going to knock that motherf****r out.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
