From 30-pound computers to keypads: CompuBox turns 40

A little under 40 years ago today, Bob Canobbio and Logan Hobson lugged a mammoth early version of a personal computer to Reno, Nevada and set themselves up ringside in the Lawlor Events Center for Livingstone Bramble’s rematch with Ray Mancini.

Eight months earlier, the up-and-coming Bramble had stopped Mancini in the 14th round to win a lightweight title; on this night he would defeat his rival again, this time by 15 round decision, to retain his crown. For Canobbio and Hobson, the evening was the equivalent of their professional debut as it marked the public unveiling of their new, patented, punch-counting system, which became known as CompuBox.

Today, CompuBox is a fixture in televised boxing, as much a part of the scenery as unofficial ringside scorers, round card girls, and drunken fights in the crowd. But at the time, few were entirely sure what to expect.

“I’m not sure how much Larry Merchant loved it at first,” Canobbio recalls with a chuckle. “On that first broadcast he referred to it as a ‘little computer toy.’”

After that first fight came a second, a heavyweight title bout between Larry Holmes and David Bey. It was the third fight, however, that made CompuBox’s name, a certain middleweight contest between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns.

“At the end of that first round I looked down and saw that I had Hagler throwing 82 punches, with zero jabs,” Canobbio recalls. Such was the widespread response to that fight and especially that ridiculous opening frame that, Canobbio reflects, “that fight kind of put us on the map.”

From 1978 to 1984, Canobbio worked as a reader service correspondent for Sports Illustrated, a job that required him to answer letters and phone calls and that gave him access to the company’s extensive library. The magazine was headquartered in the Time-Life Building in midtown Manhattan, and one day Canobbio wandered down a few floors to the offices of its corporate partner HBO, where he introduced himself to a producer named Ross Greenburg, who would later become the president of HBO Sports. Greenburg offered Canobbio some work as a researcher on a series he was developing entitled Boxing’s Best and as a production assistant at some HBO fights; and so, when Canobbio and Hobson developed the concept of CompuBox – based on a similar program that had been developed for tennis – it was to HBO that they took it. 

At the time, both men had taken jobs painting boats in a boatyard; after Greenburg offered them a gig, he recalls, they looked at each other in the elevator, “and we were like, ‘Holy shit, we’re in business.’”

Initially, the work on offer from HBO was limited. 

“They didn’t do that many shows back then,” Canobbio recalls. “It was only when Lou DiBella came in that it really took off, and soon we were doing 40 fights a year just for HBO.” In 1988, NBC hired them for its Olympic boxing coverage, and they struck gold again when their figures showed just how much Roy Jones Jnr had dominated the junior-middleweight final against Park Si-Hun only to be denied victory against the local boxer in one of the most obviously and outwardly corrupt decisions in the sport’s history. 

One year later, they added ESPN to their portfolio; four decades after it started, Canobbio estimates that CompuBox  has covered 2,400 cards. The company – which Hobson left in 2002 – now has contracts with, among others, DAZN, ESPN, and Amazon Prime as well as the likes of MVP, Matchroom, and Golden Boy Promotions. 

The technology has improved: instead of sharing the keyboard of a 30 pound computer, two observers each use a numeric keypad. Each focuses on one fighter, and pushes buttons for jabs thrown, jabs landed, power punches thrown and power punches landed – with, in recent years, an extra button added for body shots.

While CompuBox operators have traditionally been ringside, travel budgets and availability mean that they increasingly cover fight cards remotely – but they are not sitting on their couches watching the same broadcast and camera angles as the rest of us.

“At first, all we knew was being ringside,” Canobbio explains. “On some fights, we were literally on the apron looking up, which was good. Other times we’d be a row or two back, looking through the ropes. And then I noticed all the talent always had monitors; and if you watch these guys, they’re often looking at those more than they’re looking up through the ropes. So now, I don’t mind it. They send us a feed from the jib, that big overhead camera that shoots literally over the shoulder of a fighter. It’s the greatest angle to watch a fight. So I miss being there just because of the atmosphere; but production-wise, I don’t miss it at all.”

The next phase, says Canobbio, may be incorporating elements of AI.

While he has not been impressed with the accuracy of some AI punch counting that he has seen – “the numbers always seem on the high end,” he observes – he feels the technology has some real potential in terms of expanding on the metrics. It is possible, for example, that we may in short order be able to see 30-second packages between rounds that highlight all the landed punches in the previous frame.

“But,” he points out, “it has to be trained the right way.”

It has become trendy in some quarters to denigrate CompuBox, to question the competency of the operators or the accuracy of the numbers. Canobbio unhesitatingly and passionately defends the capability and diligence of his staff, and while he wouldn’t be so arrogant or naïve as to pretend that every single punch count is perfectly precise, he argues that they’re accurate enough that it takes watching replays on slow motion to find nit-picking errors. Besides, he points out, he has never claimed CompuBox is a means of scoring fights or assessing the winners.

“We’re giving you the numbers. You decipher them,” he says, noting that one of the most valuable aspects of CompuBox is the database it has developed of individual fighters’ punch trends over time, and the averages in various weight classes.

“But then social media comes along and everybody just jumps on your back,” he says. “Everybody’s an expert. And it bothered me. It still does a little bit. My sons are very good at calming me down. ‘Don’t answer that. Let that slide.’ Sometimes I have to respond anyway. But hey, it’s 40 years later and we’re still here, so we must be doing something right.”

There is a case to be made that, along with BoxRec founder John Sheppard, Canobbio has done more than almost anyone to change the way in which fans, journalists, and others consume boxing information. Unsurprisingly, both men are on the ballot annually for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) in the observer category; somewhat more surprisingly, neither man has yet been elected – an ongoing oversight that this writer among others attempts to address every year with his vote.

“Look, it’s an honor to be nominated, it really is,” Canobbio says. “But you look at the people who are nominated in that category and it’s like I’m a singles hitter in a lineup of McCovey and Mays and all these big names in the business. The competition is kinda fierce.” 

He chuckles. “Maybe I just have to hang around long enough and outlast these guys.”

Meanwhile, the Canobbio brand goes from strength to strength, as one son Nic promotes MMA cards and sumo tournaments while his other son Dan is making a name for himself co-hosting a podcast with Chris Algieri and making multiple TV spots.

It is perhaps no surprise that both Canobbio boys are following a path in combat sports, given that their father would bring them to fights regularly and even taught them how to use CompuBox equipment when they were around 12. For a while, both were part of the company’s regular punch counters; but, he smiles, “I don’t know that I can afford them anymore.”

And Canobbio himself continues the search for ways to improve his product and expand its reach.

“I’m not rich by any means,” he says, “but it isn’t as if I still need to do this to put bread on the table. But I enjoy the day-to-day challenge of running the company. Forty years later, it’s still fun.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.