BOXING : Will the Computer Change the Face of the Amateur Game?

Yet decades from now, particularly if computer scoring is next applied to professional boxing, historians will call this Festival a starting point for one of the most significant changes in the sport in the 20th Century.

Although its introduction at the Festival's Saturday and Sunday sessions was so free of controversy that it went largely unnoticed, some coaches are unhappy with the idea of electronic buttons replacing scorecards. They fear computerization of the sport will alter Olympic-style boxing.

Favoring the system are judges and amateur boxing administrators, who see it as greatly improving the quality of judging as well as eliminating biased scoring in international competition.

Pat Nappi, the three-time head coach of U.S. Olympic boxing teams, has accepted the advent of computers.

"I hate it, but I'm stuck with it," he said Sunday.

Nappi and other old-line amateur coaches believe the new scoring system will cause coaches and boxers to abandon the traditional style of amateur boxing; that it will encourage boxers to rely on more easily seen single, powerful punches instead of amateur boxing's traditional emphasis on multiple scoring blows, speed and combination punching.

"I'm still learning the system, and what I've learned about it so far I don't like," said Roosevelt Sanders, head coach of the Camp Lejeune, N.C., Marine boxing team and a candidate for the 1992 Olympic coaching job.

"When I see one bout scored 10-9 and another 90-11, I don't understand that. None of the people in charge of the system has taken the time to meet with the coaches and explain it to us, and we need that.

"My impression is this system will gradually take away the finesse, speed, the art of boxing, the hit-and-don't-get-hit technique from our sport. I don't want amateur boxing to become an all-power, puncher's game."

Electronics came to the sport after the 1988 Olympics, when International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch ordered the International Amateur Boxing Federation to either eliminate biased scoring or face expulsion from the Olympics.

Computer scoring was used first in international competition at the 1989 world amateur championships at Moscow. But this week's application at the Festival is the first time it has been used in the United States.

Highlights of the computer system:

--Five judges sit in front of a black console, index fingers poised on red and blue buttons, one for each corner.

--If the boxer from the red corner registers a scoring blow, the judge pushes his red button. But for the punch to count, the button must be depressed within one second of the blow by at least three of five judges, or the central computer will not accept the point.

In a nutshell, if a boxer wins a decision by, say, 31-20, it means at least three judges credited him with 31 scoring blows, his opponent 20.

In the event of a tie, the high and low scores are eliminated.

Under the old method, judges scored rounds on a 20-point must system. A close round would be scored 20-19, with 20-18 or 20-17 to more one-sided rounds.

So how will the computer prevent biased or incompetent judging in future Olympics?

"The judges' supervisors seated at the display terminal can see very clearly how a judge is scoring a bout," said Marco Sarfaraz of La Crescenta, an electronics engineer and longtime amateur boxing referee/judge.

"The system won't eliminate biased or incompetent judging, but it will reduce it to the point where it's virtually impossible to manipulate the system," Sarfaraz said.

"The unique part of this is that a judge scoring a bout often has no idea who he's scored as the winner. The system puts a lot more pressure on the judges. It makes them more alert and greatly raises their concentration level.

"It puts a little fear into them. No one likes to be embarrassed, and you know your work is being closely scrutinized afterward by people reading the computer printouts.

"I think eventually as they get used to it, the coaches will like it, too. Right now, the system is forcing them to understand how a computer works, and they don't want to know."

Sarfaraz acknowledged that computer scoring might change the style of amateur boxing. "I think you'll see our kids going more to the stand-up, European-style, with a lot more straight punches and harder jabs," he said. "The kids who've scored heavily with in-fighting, a lot of combinations . . . it's a little harder to see all those punches, and it's even harder to hit the button for all of them within one second."

Because judges sit on all four sides of a ring, some will score blows that are unseen by counterparts across the ring. But there are exceptions to that, too.