Alan, that's great, I will take the invite and come down to you to talk over the fight when the DVD comes out. I do think we will see the scoring differently particularly if we only use the criteria as they stand. It is the application of those criteria that is important in getting near to the consistency Thailand has. By using things that everyone is more likely to agree on judging becomes more consistent. For example, if the scoring criteria say we are looking for the effect of a technique we could all have an opinion of what that is. So what I think of as effect may very well be different to what you consider to be effective. However, if we agree to interpret an effective technique as a fighter moving then we are far more like to agree on whether that happened or not. If we only choose to score other things that are easy to determine if they hit the target or not, then we are also more likely to agree on those things as well. It is generally relatively easy to see if kicks and knees to the body have hit the target, missed or was blocked. Punches can be a little trickier to see if they have landed or not when thrown in quick succession (as has been found in the electronic amateur boxing scoring system used now). However, if we only look for the ones who really move the fighter or hurt them visibly then again we are more likely to agree on if this happened or not. I could go on but it is for these reasons that scoring is able to be so consistent in MuayThai in Thailand; the interpretation of the criteria that is the key.

I was not trying to be patronising when I said people needed to be educated on scoring. I am always looking to be educated on scoring and anything else. As far as MuayThai judging goes I have spent many, many hours over a number of years interviewing, debating, discussing and learning from some of Thailand’s most senior referees/ judges on the very points we are now debating. To confirm understanding I have been given the chance on a number of occasions to shadow judge at Rajadamnern and am pleased to find that my scores didn’t differed on any occasion on even a single round with a top Rajadamnern judge. Now this was possibly a little bit of luck in that the fights were relatively clear to score with no drawn fights. However, this is why I am confident that stadium judges will give the same verdict on the fights as me and Craig did. Time will tell.

As far as Liam Robinson goes, he is an excellent judge who understands scoring very well and is very fair. He has never been biased even when judging fighters from our gym. Even in close fights he has correctly awarded fights against our fighters when they lost (if he hadn’t I would have been angry). As a judge no one can question his ability. As far as posting in different names, as I stated earlier I don’t agree with it if it’s going to be used just to cause offence. Liam, who actually is a really good lad when you get to know him, actually told me he has never slagged off any of your fighters Alan. I can’t comment on this as I don’t know. I have told him a number of times not to slag off anyone; although I am not prepared to police his every post. I do consider being controversial is different than slagging someone off though. Maybe he can answer for himself he is a big boy.