Boxing Amateur

MMA fights are very exciting since it showcases a lot of action through the different martial arts around the world. Believe it or not, MMA or mixed martial arts would involve at least a dozen martial arts including boxing, taekwando, jiu jitsu, muay thai and others. The reason is because when a number of martial arts when used and combined properly would allow better self-defense. MMA fights would allow a number of people to use several martial arts in one fight.

In a way, fighters can take advantage of the strengths of the different martial arts and perform better. There would be two basic aspects in the mixed martial arts game. This would include the striking and grappling game. The striking aspect would involve the use of boxing, muay thai, taekwando and other martial arts that would utilize kicks, knees and punches to hit one’s opponent. This would result to knock outs since punches and kicks would result in fast and rapid blows. The grappling aspect is called the ground game since this would involve wrestling and jiu jitsu, which requires people to take down their opponents. The ground game is ideal for smaller people since they can negate the height and reach advantage of their opponents when they are both wrestling at the ground.
Winning using the ground game would include striking and submissions. Submissions would involve either manipulating the joints of opponents or choking them out using the rear naked choke. Mixed martial arts is an exciting fight game since everything can happen in a split second. Many people are now training to be experts in multiple disciplines or martial arts so that they can compete and defend themselves in the highest possible level. In fact, millions of MMA or mixed martial arts centers have been established to teach people everything that would make them a better fighter.

Many athletes from a single sport such as boxing and karate are also studying other martial arts. This would enable them to compete in MMA fights, which now have greater commercial appeal. That is why MMA athletes are now earning more compared to other sports. The worlds of mixed martial arts are evolving in a very rapid rate. It may seem counteract other combat sports such as boxing. The MMA sport has grown big on both the real word and digital world. Because events like UFC and Strikeforce are only available on cable TV and pay per view channel, many fans have put up MMA videos online for others to view. The web has helped this sport grown quickly across the globe.

Boxing is a great game nowadays in sports bet. Often we bet on sports, and boxing is one of the most favorite. Some of us we know that boxing is one of ancient sports. Here is a brief history about boxing.

In all logical probability, wrestling is the oldest of all athletic sports, even antedating foot racing, while boxing became a recognized form of entertainment at a later date than either of these diversions. Foot racing would naturally become a systematized sport among the peoples living upon level ground, where courses and set distances could be prepared. Wrestling, however, being simply physical combat softened to the guise of a friendly exhibition, would be taken up by all races, mountaineers as well as plainsmen. Boxing is the expression of another form of physical combat, as shown in the striking of blows. Two small boys, barely old enough to toddle, will seize each other in such grips as occur to childish minds and muscles, and will roll upon the floor in frantic grapple. That is the symbolism of the wrestling combat, and the idea of boxing will not occur to their youthful intellects for several years to come. all of new sport can find at sports betting online

The theory of boxing having been worked out to a point where it was possible to convert a combat to an entertaining sport, rules and regulations would naturally force themselves upon the fighters and promoters. Wrestling became the expression of rough and tumble battling; boxing was made the expression of cleaner and more impressive fighting. The fundamental idea of the wrestling combat lies in its continuance upon the ground, with both men rolling on the turf—a grapling, choking, limb-wrenching struggle, kept up till one man or the other is helpless. The fundamental idea of the boxing combat lies in keeping upon the feet, inflicting damage by blows instead of grips, and never, under any circumstances, battling while prostrate on the ground.

Having differentiated boxing from wrestling in this manner, the early ring-promoters framed the laws and limitations of the game to suit their ideas of heroic competition. It is impossible, of course, to state just when boxing was made a public sport, to which eager devotees paid their admission money, but it is likely that the Mahrattas and the Rajputs of India developed a code of ring-laws before any of the white-skinned nations. Many historians have always asserted that the earliest recorded boxing match was that between Dares and Entellus, described in Virgil’s Aeneid, and taking place in Sicily, about 1183 B. C. In India, though, it is stated that boxing—according to the Rajput rules—was flourishing as early as B. C. 2000, and they ought to know.

• Do you like being a tough guy?
• And do you go to a boxing club to show after that how hard you hit when you’re pissed off?
• Well, you’d better find out that you will become like Muhammad Ali, even if you do not step on a professional arena.

A new Swedish research shows that blows to the head in amateur boxing provoke severe brain damage. “Despite the high prevalence of brain damage as a result of professional boxing, until now there has been little information on the possible risks for brain injury in amateur
boxing,” said study author Dr. Max Hietala, with Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Goteborg.

The researchers employed lumbar puncture to see if there were higher amounts of biochemical markers pointing to brain injury in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 14 amateur boxers. The fighters were checked after a fight and a second time three months after a pause without boxing. 10 healthy men that did not practice box were used for control.

The research team detected in the CSF high amounts of neuronal and glial markers showing brain damage after the fight. Neurofilament light (NFL), a marker for neuronal damage, was four fold higher in boxers in the first 10 days following the fight compared to control subjects.

These high marker amounts turned back to normal only after the three months pause. These abnormal levels following a boxing match were much higher among those amateur fighters who had received over 15 high impact hits to the head.

This category was found to present 7-8 times more NFL-levels post fight than their own levels after the three-months pause. “Repeated hits to the head are potentially damaging to the central nervous system, and our results suggest CSF-analysis could be used for medical counseling of athletes after boxing or head injury,” said Hietala.

When the same analyses were made on soccer players, who head the ball repeatedly from long and high goal kicks, there were no raised levels of brain trauma markers in cerebrospinal fluid. “This data shows headings in soccer is not associated with any neurochemical evidence of brain damage,” said Hietala.

Many people believe that boxing is dead because of the rise of MMA, and while that may be true there will always be those amateurs who continue to keep the sport alive with some highlight reel knockouts of their own.  After all, who needs a ring or octagon when you can put on a show in the comfort of your own living room.

These two guys put the gloves on and decided to get a couple of swings in there with their friends watching.  They touch gloves and right away the mayhem begins.  With their fists swinging wildly, both guys get in some devastating shots before the final blow is landed.

It was the type of blow you would expect to see delivered from a giant heavyweight fighter, or perhaps even the right hand of Dan Henderson.

This is without a doubt one of the better amateur boxing matches I have witnessed as there could have been at least two or three knockouts prior to the punch that ended it.  It was a great finishing shot, but I am not sure what was more enjoyable to watch; the knockout, or the reaction of those in the room, including the male who delivered it.

One thing about amateur boxing is the ringside doctors tend to be amateurs as well.

This edition of articles emphasizes safety concerns, and is in honor of the late award winning actress, Natasha Richardson, who recently died from what initially appeared to be a minor blow to her head in a skiing accident, and to her surviving husband actor Liam Neeson who as a teenager was the youth heavyweight amateur boxing champion of Northern Ireland:

The standing count can serve as a means for the referee to assess the condition of the boxer’s situation in the ring.  This tool of the referee is readily available and is routinely initiated as a result of a blow or from a series of blows.  These eight seconds give the referee an up close opportunity to evaluate and focus on the boxer.  While the referee is administering the eight count, the referee has plenty of time to assess the boxer’s physical condition by assessing his/her: stance, muscle tone, and the eyes.  Within those precious eight seconds, the referee determines if the boxer is capable to continue, or if the bout should be stopped.  At the end of those eight seconds, the referee should either command the bout to continue, or stop it.  Compliments of Ray Silvas, Vice-Chair AIBA R/J Commission; past Technical Committee Chair and National COO of USA Boxing.

Second impact syndrome. Referees who have issued RSC-Hs and who have signed a restriction Affidavit and/or those Officials who perform practice judging, and/or who referee sparring in the gyms should pay particular attention.  All the guidelines focus on the question of when is it safe for the boxer to return to competition after suffering a concussion.  Several serious risks are associated with a premature return to boxing.  The most serious is the second impact syndrome.  This syndrome was first described in 1973 and it occurs in athletes that return to competition before the symptoms of the first concussion have completely resolved.  A second blow to the head, even a minor one, can result in loss of auto regulation of the brain blood supply.  This in turn can result in brain injury and possible death.  All coaches and boxers should also be made aware of this risk.  Many injuries usually can occur in unsupervised sparring sessions.  Therefore, close supervision during sparring sessions should be given to the boxers at all times.  If there are any questions, it is always better to keep the boxer from any further competition/sparring until a physician examines that person.  Compliments of Robert Voy, MD, LBC 49 Nevada ringside physician; past member AIBA medical commission; and past President of USA Boxing

After scandal robbed Roy Jones Jr. of the Olympic Gold at Seoul in 1988, the International Olympic Committee decided that serious changes needed to be made to Olympic Boxing. Most boxing experts and fans agree the changes have only caused more controversy by making judging less reliable and have stripped boxing of its former glory.

1988 Olympic boxing scoring:

• 5 judges score bout
• The white part of the glove must land on front of head/torso for a point
• Each judge marked their score on a scorecard

1992 scoring after changes:

• 5 judges score bout
• The white part of the glove must land on front of head/torso for a point
• Each judge has 2 electronic buttons, one for each respective boxer
• 3 of 5 judges must press a respective boxer’s button within 1 second for him to receive a point

The last rule is not a misprint. When a fighter lands a qualifying blow 3 of 5 judges must press a button within 1 second of each other in order for him to receive a point. Button scoring threatens integrity of scores.

In the course of a bout judges may get the buttons mixed up, believe they are pushing a button hard enough when they’re not, or buttons as on a TV remote, keyboard or gaming controller can stick or malfunction.

Under this system flurries between fighters, ‘’infighting where no full force punches can land’’ (Boxing – Olympic Rules, Judging and Officials), in which more than one punch literally couldn’t be counted using the 1 second method the AIBA (International Boxing Association) relies on, are to be scored as a single point after the flurry ends. That point is to be given to whichever one of the boxers the judges feel got the better of the exchange; provided that three of the judges push one of the boxer’s respective buttons within 1 second of each other after that flurry ends.

This is very controversial. A flurry between fighters can be advantageous to both and can be difficult to score even when a judge has the time to evaluate the flurry and contemplate them subjectively; process that can take longer than a single second even by an experienced judge.

Seeking objectivity?

According to the International Olympic Committee the electronic scoring machine was introduced to make judges’ officiating more objective. Boxing is not an objective sport. Factors such as ring generalship (how well fighters control their opponent in the ring), technical efficiency, and accurate effective punching are subjective, key factors to being an effective boxer. In fact these factors are the very essence of boxing; what separates the sport of boxing from the act of fighting and what made Muhammed Ali, Leon Spinks, George Foreman and others Olympic Champions. Under the Olympic rules however, these aren’t even taken into account. And fighters receive no extra points for knocking their opponent down.

A major flaw in the 1 second scoring was made clear Tuesday night in Beijing when USA’s Rau’shee Warren, as NBC Boxing commentator Teddy Atlas pointed out, scored a point while reeling off balance and falling to the ground after a blow by South Korea’s Lee Ok-sung.

This is only one of a number of incidents at the 2008 Olympics thus far. There is a consensus amongst boxing experts; boxing at the Olympics has been ruined by the 1992 rule change. It will be interesting to see if the AIBA changes anything at the conclusion of the Beijing Games to bring legitimacy back to Olympic Boxing and restore its former glory.