Before I begin, in the interest of integrity, let me preface this article by saying that I am in no way an impartial observer for this fight. I run Jim and Dan’s web site for them, and as my sister is married to Dan, I consider both to be family. I acknowledge I had a vested interest in the result of the fight. Seeing as many readers will thus find my footing in presenting a case for Jim tenuous to begin with, I have taken extra care to break down each round minute-by-minute to illustrate why I felt Jim deserved the 29-28 victory.
There are three main points of contention I have seen raised in the days since the fight by those who are opposed to the unanimous decision ruling in Miller’s favor: the fight was too close for a unanimous decision, Bocek deserved a 10-8 round in the second frame, and Bocek should have been awarded the third round, or at least a draw. The sad part in this debate is that I feel not nearly enough attention has been given to how great the fight was, and how it probably deserved Fight of the Night over a fight which, while entertaining, saw two gassed fighters gutting out a fight as opposed to two top-level grapplers putting on a show.
As for the fight being too close for a unanimous decision, this is a fallacy which is often thrown around in the wake of an even fight. Simply because a fight is scored unanimously for one fighter does not mean that the fight wasn’t close. Take, for example, a fight that is close as can be, one in which literally half those who watched it thought Fighter A won, half thought Fighter B won. Ruling out draws via 10-10 rounds which, as the game is judged today, just aren’t a particularly real possibility, there is a 50/50 chance a given person will name Fighter A as the winner, and a 50/50 chance a given person will name Fighter B the winner. The fights aren’t judged by a group of 99, they are judged by a group of 3. That’s an incredibly small sample, and explains how unanimous decisions aren’t that uncommon for close fights. In fact, in the 50/50 scenario, there will be a unanimous decision a respectable 25 percent of the time, as there is a 50 percent chance the second judge will agree with the first, and a 50 percent chance that, should that occur, the third judge agrees with both. So, just because a fight is close, doesn’t mean a unanimous decision is an outrage. A close fight doesn’t have to be scored a split decision to be scored properly.
The latter two points deal with scoring of the fight. I was in attendance at the fight, and thought that Miller won, but was concerned with how the result would go. I spoke with my brother after, and mentioned that I was concerned the judges would screw up and not give Miller the first round, only to be surprised to hear him say “When you rewatch it, you won’t think that’s the round in contention.” So, I sat down yesterday to have a go on a recording of the fight, and concurred. I’d overestimated the time Bocek spent on top in the first frame, thinking it much longer than it was, and saw the third round was clearly the contentious one, as most observers agree the first went to Miller, and the second to Bocek. To break down why I scored each round as I did, here is my minute-by-minute account of the fight: