By Lyle Fitzsimmons

In all the years I’ve watched boxing – more than 30 in fact, since I sat with my dad in Grand Island, N.Y. and watched Ken Norton dispose of Duane Bobick in 58 seconds – I’ve been irked each and every time I’ve heard a TV judge thusly describe the action of a just-completed one-sided round:

“Fighter A really dominated for the whole three minutes in Round X, and, with the knockdown, he gets the extra point on the scorecard and wins it, 10-8.”

Anyone else understand my angst?

As those who’ve sat and watched a fight with me will testify, it’s within seconds after hearing such a statement that I’ll clarify, pointing out that in a 10-point must system, scoring a knockdown does not earn you an extra point at all. Ten, in this case, remains 10.

Rather, it docks the fighter who was knocked down an extra point, chipping the nine he would normally have received down to eight or even seven in some extreme cases.

But no matter whether it’s Harold Lederman, Steve Farhood, Steve Weisfeld or someone else crunching the numbers, it’s almost always described incorrectly, as if the winner suddenly jumped from 10 to 11 for displaying his dominance.

It drives me nuts.

So, in accordance with the philosophy of coaching the talent on hand rather than teaching old dogs new tricks, I’ve decided to rebuild the system around my stuck-in-cement colleagues.

Instead of an overly complex formula involving 10 points for winners and nine or less for losers, I propose going back in time to the era when winners of a normally competitive round received one point and the losers received none.

If the round is even, a scoring crutch I try to avoid at all costs, neither fighter receives a point.

Lastly, if a fighter scores a knockdown or more and truly wins a round in decisive fashion, he gets either two or three, actually earning the “extra” point(s) too often rewarded by the TV talking heads.

Such a system incorporates the best parts of both the “must” and “rounds” approaches, simultaneously giving a fighter credit for piling up individual three-minute victories, while leaving the possibility for a trailing fighter to make up points with dominant rounds down the stretch.

It also eliminates the specter of faulty math at tabulation time.

That assumes, of course, that anyone actually licensed to score a fight would be able to handle a tally sheet awarding one, two or three points per round, as opposed to the high-end calculations involved with 10s, nines, eights and sevens.

A 115-113 bout over 12 rounds would be a much more manageable 7-5 in the new era, or – in a 10-rounder where each man won five rounds, but one scored knockdowns in two rounds and the other in one – the final would be a more sensible 7-6 instead of 94-93.

And in a title bout where a champion is said to have “pitched a shutout,” the actual scorecard would correspondingly read 12-0, rather than an unnecessarily hard to dissect 120-108.

Not to mention it’d make me a lot easier to deal with on TV fight nights.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

WEDNESDAY

IBF mini flyweight title – Osaka, Japan

Katsunari Takayama (champion/unranked IWBR) vs. Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr. (No. 9 IBF/unranked IWBR)

Takayama (28-7, 11 KO): First title defense; Held IBF title (2013-14, two defenses)

Sakkreerin (27-3-1, 15 KO): First title fight; Tenth fight against better than .500 foe (6-2-1, 3 KO)

Fitzbitz says: The Japanese incumbent is hardly a phenomenon, but facing a road-tripping 21-year-old foe who’s shown no real world-class chops should be a safe bet for a victory. Takayama by decision



FRIDAY

WBC super middleweight title – Chicago, Ill.

Anthony Dirrell (champion/No. 8 IWBR) vs. Badou Jack (No. 8 contender/No. 15 IWBR)

Dirrell (27-0-1, 22 KO): First title defense; Fighting in his 10th state (MD, GA, MI, CA, NV, FL, OK, TX, NY)

Jack (18-1-1, 12 KO): First title fight; Fighting in his eighth state (NJ, NV, CT, NY, MI, WA, TX)

Fitzbitz says: The challenger has a flashy nickname and some flashy promotional allegiances, but when it comes to a resume that proves him title-worthy, he’s lacking. Dirrell in 9

SATURDAY

IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles – New York, N.Y.

Wladimir Klitschko (champion/No. 1 IWBR) vs. Bryant Jennings (No. 2 WBA contender/No. 7 IWBR)

Klitschko (63-3, 53 KO): Eighteenth IBF/IBO title defense; Unbeaten since 2004 (21-0, 16 KO)

Jennings (19-0, 10 KO): First title fight; Fourth fight in New York (3-0, 2 KO)

Fitzbitz says: Jennings had better hope that Klitschko is so enamored with fatherhood and the return to New York that he comes in less than 100 percent. Otherwise, he’s got trouble. Klitschko in 7

IBO featherweight title – East London, South Africa

Lusanda Komanisi (champion/No. 28 IWBR) vs. Jesus Galicia (No. 25 contender/unranked IWBR)

Komanisi (18-3, 16 KO): Second title fight; Unbeaten since 2009 (14-0, 12 KO)

Galicia (13-8, 8 KO): First title fight; Second fight outside Mexico (0-1, 0 KO)

Fitzbitz says: A challenger with two losses in his last three fights – including a two-round stoppage defeat in the most recent one – inspires exactly zero reason to think an upset is imminent. Komanisi in 6

IBO flyweight title – East London, South Africa

Moruti Mthalane (champion/No. 10 IWBR) vs. Jose Argumedo (unranked/unranked IWBR)

Mthalane (31-2, 20 KO): Second title defense; Held IBF title (2009-12, four defenses)

Argumedo (14-3-1, 8 KO): First title fight; First fight outside Mexico

Fitzbitz says: Argumedo hasn’t beaten a fighter coming off a victory since 2012, and the times he’s done – all four of them – weren’t against anything approaching Mthalane’s quality. Mthalane in 8

Last week's picks: 2-0 (WIN: Yamanaka, Crawford)

2015 picks record: 20-6 (76.9 percent)

Overall picks record: 659-229 (74.2 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.