Boxing: How judges saw 'Judgement Day': Sanctioning body releases judges' scorecards detailing Eubank's fortunate escape

THE scorecards from the drawn super-middleweight title fight between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn,

which were released yesterday by the World Boxing Council, reveal exactly how close the scoring was in the 'Judgement Day' bout Benn failed to win because he had a point deducted for persistent low blows, writes Patrick Miles.

The WBC supervisor, Ray Clarke, the former secretary of the British Board, said he decided to release the detailed scoring of the judges, Harry Gibbs, Carol Castellano and Chuck Hassett, 'in view of the wide interest the contest and result have aroused'.

The round-by-round scores add up to a victory for Benn, with Gibbs scoring it 115-114 to Eubank, Castellano 115-113 to Benn and Hassett 115-114 to Benn, which would have given the verdict to the WBC champion on a split decision. But with a point deducted from Benn's aggregates, Hassett's totals ended up level, and the result was therefore a draw.

The cards illustrate the subjective nature of the judging with the three officials agreeing on only four of the 12 rounds, the first (Eubank), the fourth (Benn), the 10th (Benn) and the final round, which many observers felt had gone to Eubank but the judges awarded to Benn. Castellano was alone in deciding that Benn had won the final six rounds. The scoring also shows that on only two occasions did one of the judges score a round even, and the rest were all 10-9.

About 16.5m people watched the fight on television. It was ITV's third-highest audience for a sports event after England's 1990 World Cup match against the Republic of Ireland and the Bruno-Bugner fight in 1987. Eubank said yesterday another match with Benn was 'inevitable'.

(Table omitted)