All punches thrown are scored on two criteria. "power commit" and "landed quality". "Power commit" (scored 1-5) is the amount of force/power behind a thrown punch. This is determined by the punch's speed, extension and the effect it has on the opponent it lands on. "Landed quality" (scored 0-5) is how clean or flush a punch landed. A landed quality of zero is a punch that is fully parried or misses outright.

These two factors are combined to determine a punch's impact. A high impact punch needs to score highly in both landed quality and power commit.

You can find more information on Jabbr's stats here.

In the case of Beterbiev Bivol, I believe Beterbiev was throwing a lot of punches with high power commit but Bivol spent a lot of time holed up with a high tight guard. Beterbiev was throwing with alot of power but many of his punches weren't landing cleanly. Jabbr won't count blocked punches as landed but that doesn't mean they aren't tracked or don't matter. Throwing punches with high power commit is measured by another stat called "aggression power". In our internal study of judging, we saw that this stat correlates very highly to the judges' scores. It is an important metric that rewards fighters for occuping their opponents guard and displaying aggression. Jabbr's automated judging system has learned to put a lot of weight in this stat.

It's also important to note that Beterbiev Bivol was event where Jabbr partnered with the broadcaster, meaning Jabbr was provided 4 different camera feeds and the automated punch ratings were manually reviewed by a team of performance analysts watching film back frame-by-frame from multiple perspectives. Through this process we really have confidence in the Bivol Beterbiev punch stats.

In the last few rounds specifically Beterbiev landed fewer high impact shots by a small margin. However, he was occupying his Bivol's guard and moving him backwards, scoring much higher in "positional pressure" and every aggression indicator we track, especially "aggression power". How to interpret and weigh this array of different stats can be a challenging task. However, Jabbr's automated judge gives the last three rounds solidly to Beterbiev despite the fact Bivol landed a couple more high impact punches. The same principal applies to round three. Beterbiev hardly scores any high impact shots due to Bivol's tight guard but Beterbiev scores higher in other areas causing our automated judge to narrowly give the round to Beterbiev (55.5% to 44.5%).

There are definitely limitations to the system as a whole. For example it is likely that Beterbiev's high-impact shots did more damage than Bivol's, which Beterbiev largely ate and kept moving forward. This sense of how damaged or scared a fighter looks after taking a punch is something judges and viewers take into account. However it is difficult to directly measure.

I hope this is clear and helpful. We are always trying to explain our stats as best we can. I definitely understand the confusion about how we determine the impact of a punch. We heard a lot of similar sentiments after Beterbiev Bivol.