Punch Stats: Building a Data Base Can Be Frustrating

Looking to dig up some punch statistics from an old or recent fight? It might be harder than you think. Other than digging through BoxBec wiki entries (which can be a hit or miss process), there’s no single resource on the internet today to consistently find punch stats.

CompuBox, one of the most referenced and widely used resources in the sport of boxing, is basically nothing more than a landing page right now on the world wide web. Founder and president Bob Cannobio said while he’d love to make the wealth of information his team has collected over the past 33 years available for public consumption, the company is currently in a due diligence process to determine how and when to make the data available.

“We’re in the process of building out our database,” said Cannobio. “But we were toying with the idea of selling the data. There was some interest from other entities that possibly want access to the database, and the database would be on their site.”

CompuBox has been boxing’s industry leader for collecting and disseminating punch statistics since the company was founded in 1985. CompuBox captures punch stats for most major boxing shows through their exclusive partnerships with television networks such as HBO, Showtime and ESPN.

“We’re kind of in limbo right now,” said Cannobio. “We’re not looking to get rich over it, but there’s interest from a couple parties to house the data, and so it’s an ongoing conversation.”

Currently, CompuBox releases data and information about upcoming fights, as well as historical points of interest, through their partnerships with television networks and various media entities. The only thing available at the CompuBox website right now is some basic information about the company, so fight fans going there hoping to research upcoming bouts such as the Sept. 13 rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin are out of luck.

“We’d love the data to be available for fans to look at and toy around, and that’s the ultimate goal, but we have to figure out where it’s going to land.”

CompuBox’s method for collecting punch stats has remained relatively static since it first came along over 30 years ago. CompuBox gathers real-time punch statistics through two operators watching bouts, each watching one fighter and pressing buttons for connected and landed punches. The results are tallied in real-time so the punch stats can be shared with television networks during fight broadcasts and distributed to other media after the event. Since 2014, around 50 percent of the live fights they cover are tallied from CompuBox’s home office in New York through live video feeds.

Some critics have argued CompuBox’s process for collecting punch stats in real-time during fights is a flawed approach. John Williams, founder of Boxstat.co, said his process of reviewing fight videos in slow motion is more accurate than CompuBox’s method. Moreover, Williams said he posts his punch stats on Boxstat’s site for everyone to see.

“We record the fight footage then go through round by round in slow motion and log each punch via our own custom system,” said Williams. “It takes a long time, and it involves long nights to get them ready for the morning but ensures near perfect accuracy which other sources rarely are.”

Williams seemed intent on giving CompuBox credit for its long and meritorious history, but his belief is that to accomplish what CompuBox aims to do in real-time is virtually impossible.

“We like what CompuBox does, but to get high accuracy on punch stats in real-time is almost impossible from our experience,” said Williams. “CompuBox does a great job of getting as close as they can, but I don’t think punch stats in real-time is anything we’d ever offer.”

Boxstat is a relatively new platform gaining traction among some in the fight community as a reliable resource for reviewing certain data points about fights and fighters. Williams started the site as a hobby interest in 2013, and he has steadily built something that’s equal parts BoxRec and CompuBox with a twist of data junkie mixed into it, too.

While Williams claims to have the most accurate punch stats in the world, there are shockingly few punch stats available at his website. In fact, a review of Manny Pacquiao’s last five fights on Boxstat uncovered exactly zero statistics for Pacquiao’s latest high profile bouts against Floyd Mayweather, Timothy Bradley, Jessie Vargas, Jeff Horn and Lucas Matthysse.

It stands to reason to suggest the Boxstat dream just isn’t quite a reality yet. William’s process takes an incredibly long time to accomplish, and while CompuBox is hired by television networks to do their work, the labor of love Williams is attempting is hard to pull off with such limited resources.

Still, Williams’ site is sharp-looking, easy-to-navigate and open to the public. Perhaps all his punch counting dreams will someday become a reality. Or perhaps the people at CompuBox find the partner for which they’re looking and end up putting their statistics out there for free for everyone to use. Or maybe someone out there does something else that nobody else sees coming and takes over the punch counting world.

Until then, it looks like you’re out of luck if you’re looking for a one-stop shop for punch stats.

Follow Kelsey McCarson on Twitter.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this article at The Fight Forum, CLICK HERE.