RIYADH: An artificial-intelligence judge will score the much-anticipated rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk here on Saturday, according to the organizers.
In a video posted early on Friday by General Entertainment Authority Chairman Turki Alalshikh, the AI judge explains how it will score the bout.
“I am the first-ever AI boxing judge,” the humanoid figure announces in the 38-second clip. “And I am here to bring fairness to the ring.”
The AI judge, powered by The Ring, the well-known boxing magazine, is just an “experiment” and will not decide the fight, according to Alalshikh.
Boxing fights are usually scored by three judges, who use the 10-point system each round to choose a winner in case there is no knockout.
“I analyze every round, every move, and every decisive moment during the fight,” it said.
Landed punches, effective aggression and defense will be monitored. (The Ring)
Like human judges, the bot will try to track landed punches, effective aggression and defense, collecting real-time metrics to calculate a score and decide who has won.
In the past, human judges have been accused of not scoring correctly, being biased, or more seriously, corrupt.
It is unclear what the long-term impact of the experiment will be, but other sports including football and cricket use similar technologies to support referees and umpires to make accurate decisions more quickly, which have led to fairer results.
Excitement continues to build for the fight. Fury, who exercised a clause in his contract for a rematch after his May defeat to the undefeated Ukrainian, is out for revenge.
The fighters faced-off for media photos on Thursday night ahead of the official weigh-in on Friday.
The two fighters faced off for photos in Riyadh on Thursday. (X/@Turki_alalshikh)
