CompuBox is the name of a computerized

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 punches scoring system run by two operators. CompuBox is used in boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 matches across the world.

The system is based on a computer program, originally named FightStat, developed by Jon Gibbs in 1984-85 when Gibbs worked with Logan Hobson and Robert Canobbio at Sports Information Data Base (SIDB), of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

Gibbs was the developer of TenniSTAT, the first computer-generated statistics program for tennis, which was used by the US Open, Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and other major tournaments.

At Hobson & Canobbio's request, Gibbs wrote the code for FightStat (also called PunchStat in some venues) and was used at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum and in Reno for the 1985 HBO Boxing

HBO Boxing

HBO World Championship Boxing is a sports television series, premiering in January 1973 that has shown a number of significant boxing events in the last three decades....

 telecast

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 of the Livingstone Bramble

Livingstone Bramble

Ras-I Alujah Bramble is a boxer. However, Bramble was raised on Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He became the first world champion from Saint Kitts and Nevis. As of 2005, Bramble is still active in professional boxing...

-Ray Mancini

Ray Mancini

Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini is a retired Italian-American boxer. He held the World Boxing Association lightweight championship from 1982 to 1984. Mancini inherited his distinctive nickname from his father, veteran boxer Lenny "Boom Boom" Mancini, who laid the foundation for his son's career...

 rematch for the WBA

World Boxing Association

The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...

's world Lightweight title.

After SIDB went bankrupt in 1985, Hobson and Canobbio renamed the program CompuBox and founded CompuBox Inc. Hobson later left the company in 2002.

CompuBox's purpose is to settle controversies surrounding fights by counting each punch thrown by each of the fighters, and also each punch landed, to provide fight viewers with a final punchstat count and a perception of who should ideally be given the judges' decision, in the cases where a fight lasts the full distance.

The system calls for two operators. Each operator watches one of the two fighters and has access to four keys, corresponding to jab connect, jab miss, power punch connect, and power punch miss. The operators key in the different punches as they happen, collecting punch counts and hit percentages along the way.

Apart from HBO

Home Box Office

HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...

, CompuBox is also used by NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 and ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

, among others. Former world champion Genaro Hernandez

Genaro Hernandez

Genaro Hernández was a Mexican-American boxer from South Central Los Angeles. Hernández was the former WBC, WBA, & Lineal super featherweight champion.-Pro career:...

, a computer expert, was one of the men in charge of operating the system

System

System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....

.