Boxing Amateur

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.

During a General Assembly, The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) and its President, Mario Vazquez Rana, announced the inclusion of Women Boxing in the 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games, a request made by the President of the American Boxing Confederation, Bienvenido Solano.

In the same way, it was announced the broad interest for women’s boxing to be able to demonstrate their skills and abilities in the Pan American Games. This discipline was accepted under the same conditions that the IOC did for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games.

The weight categories for women’s competitions will be 51kgs, 60kgs and 75kgs, which will have 7 competitors per weight, a total of 21 boxers. This will be reduced from the men quota of 125 boxers.

The women’s qualification procedure for this event has not yet been announced.  The PanAmerican Games are scheduled for October 13-30, 2011.  The men’s boxing events are currently scheduled for October 21-29.

Among British amateur boxers, only those who won Olympic gold medals tended to achieve recognition beyond the limits of boxing enthusiasts. They included Harry Mallin (Middleweight), 1920 and 1924), Terry Spinks (Flyweight, 1956), Dick McTaggart (Lightweight, 1956) and Chris Finnegan (Middleweight, 1968). In 1908, at the Olympic Games in London, five weight divisions were contested, Bantamweight, Featherweight, Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight. British boxers won them all, and four of the finals were all-British!

It is the professional side of boxing, however, that has produced the celebrities whose activities the public have generally followed. In the period between bare-knuckle pugilism and post-Queensberry boxing, Jem Mace was important. He carried many of the traditions of the old London Prize-Ring, but promoted the use of gloves and helped to popularise the sport
in the United States and Australia. In the post-Queensberry era, the first British fighter to achieve superstar status was Bob Fitzsimmons. He weighed less than 12 stone but won world titles at Middleweight (1892), Light-heavyweight (1903) and Heavyweight (1897) and fought his last bout at the age of fifty-two.

Successful fighters have provoked fierce local pride. The best example was Jimmy Wilde, a Welsh Flyweight who won the world Flyweight Championship in 1916 and held it until 1923. He once had a sequence of eighty-eight fights without defeat. Between 1911 and 1923, he won seventy-five of his fights by a knockout. He was idolised in Wales, where they commonly believed him to be the best boxer, pound-for-pound, that ever lived. He was described as the “Mighty Atom” and “the ghost with a hammer in his hand”. Freddy Welsh (Freddy Hall Thomas), from Pontypridd, won the Lightweight title in 1912.

The Scots had a similar pride in Benny Lynch, a Flyweight from Glasgow, who held the world Flyweight title in 1935 and again in 1937. Over the years, Scots have had great success at this weight; Jackie Paterson won the title in 1943 and Walter McGowan in 1966. Ken Buchanan won the Lightweight title in 1971 and Jim Watt in 1980. In Northern Ireland, Rinty Monahan held the Flyweight title from 1947 to 1950 and Barry McGuigan won the W.B.A. Featherweight title in 1985.

England, too, had its successes at the lighter weights. Among the Flyweights, Jackie Brown won the title in 1932, Peter Kane in 1938 and Terry Allen in 1950 and Naseem Hamed in the 1990s.

The Welsh had their own featherweight legend Jim Driscoll. His nickname was “Peerless Jim”, he was born in the onetime Irish “slum” of Newtown. Jim was the first outright winner of the Lord Lonsdale Belt. Jim had prolific wins of the British, Empire and European titles. Jim is considered by many to be the best pound for pound fighter of all time.

Britain has had other popular world champions. In the 1930s, Jackie Berg won the Light-Welterweight title; in the 1940s, Freddie Mills won the Light-Heavyweight title; in the 1950s and 1960s, Randolph Turpin and Terry Downes won Middleweight titles; and in the 1970s, John Conteh and John Stracey won the Light-Heavyweight and Welterweight titles respectively. With so many title-awarding bodies in the 1980s and 1990s, the public became unsure about who actually was the champion.

Nevertheless, the successes of Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Joe Calzaghe continued to bring extensive media coverage to boxing and sustained a considerable public following.

The most popular boxers, howevers, have not always been the world title-holders. Just fighting for the world title in the Heavyweight division can bestow celebrity status, as was shown by Henry Cooper, who twice unsuccessfully fought Muhammad Ali in the 1960s.

Britain had to wait 100 years to have its first Heavyweight champion since Bob Fitzsimmons lost his title in 1899. Lennox Lewis became undisputed champion in 1999, having first gained the W.B.C. title in 1993. Frank Bruno held the W.B.C. world Heavyweight title shortly between 1995 and 1996, after beating the man who beat Lewis, Oliver McCall. He lost it to Mike Tyson in a rematch of their 1989 title bout.

Sue Atkins (alias Sue Catkins) helped to pioneer women’s boxing in Britain in the 1980s, but without any official recognition. The first British woman to be issued with a license was Jane Couch from Fleetwood, who won the Women’s International Boxing Federation (W.I.B.F.) Welterweight title in 1996. Most experts would agree, however, that it was the Christy Martin-Deirdre Gogarty world championship bout, also in 1996, that helped women’s boxing popularity grow internationally. Weeks after defeating Gogarty by a six round decision, Martin was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Outside the United Kingdom, of course, boxing has also produced many celebrities on a world-wide basis. Muhammad Ali of Louisville, Kentucky, United States, often recognised and self appointed as The Greatest, is probably the best example. Puerto Rico has three boxers to be generally considered national heroes out of a cast of over 50 world champions from that country, these being Felix Trinidad, Wilfred Benitez and Wilfredo Gomez. Nicaragua has Alexis Arguello, Mexico, out of over 100 world champions, Ruben Olivares, Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez, Cuba has Jose Napoles and amateur legend Teofilo Stevenson, Argentina Carlos Monzon, Panama Roberto Duran and Eusebio Pedroza, Australia Jeff Fenech, Japan Jiro Watanabe, Ghana Azumah Nelson, South Korea Jung Koo Chang and so on. These are boxers whose fame transcended the boxing borders and became household names among regular folks.

In Mississippi City, on February 7, 1882 the last heavyweight boxing championship bareknuckle fight took place.

In 2004, female boxer Ann Wolfe surpassed Henry Armstrong (until then the only man to hold world titles in three divisions simultaneously), by becoming the only boxer ever to hold world titles in four different categories at the same time. A rule preventing men from holding titles in more than one weight class at the same time is in place since soon after Armstrong held his three titles.

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.

The 2012 Olympics takes place in London, and will have a lot of work to do to live up to the extravaganza that took place in the Chinese Capital last year. Work is already under way in building the Olympic Village and making sure that all the necessary elements are in place to ensure that all the athletes, and the supporters who are watching from the stands, are made feel at home. London is a major city and is obviously well-suited to hosting the Olympic Games. More work needs to be done though, and will no doubt be done right up to the start of the games, which the top brass in the United Kingdom will hope can live up to previous years.

BOXING

Boxing was a major success at the Beijing Games with hosts China, the United Kingdom and Ireland benefiting greatly and winning a number of medals in the different weight divisions. In the United Kingdom, James De Gale won a gold medal at middleweight level, while bronze medals went to Tony Jeffries and David Price. China were extremely successful also, winning four medals – 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Gold medals went to Zou Shiming and Zhao Xiaoping, silver went to Zhang Zhilei and a bronze medal went to Hanati Silamu.

Perhaps the biggest success story though was related to Ireland, who came into the games with very little optimism around getting a medal. The country has been shrouded in Olympic controversy in recent times with Michelle Smith De Bruin’s four year ban in 1998 for tampering with a sample, and also the stripping of equestrian star Cian O’Connor’s medal after his horse failed a drugs test. Indeed, even in Beijing, horse rider Denis Lynch was disqualified for a drug-related incident. So, for the Boxers to come home with three medals was a terrific achievement. For the record, Paddy Barnes won bronze medals and Kenny Egan was extremely unfortunate not to get a gold, but he was more than happy to settle for a silver medal.

WOMEN’S BOXING

With so much good work being done for Irish Boxing by the likes of Billy Walsh, a former Buffer’s Alley hurler, then there is genuine cause for optimism with London 2012 very much on the horizon. They will also be hopeful that women’s boxing will be included on the itinerary in three years, largely due to the exploits of one Katie Taylor. The 22 year old, who attended St. Killian’s school in her native Bray, Co. Wicklow, has forged quite a reputation for herself, especially in the last four years. She started boxing, under the tutelage of her father Peter, at the age of 12 and would go on to be crowned European Amateur Champion in 2005. She would regain her crown in 2006, before going to taking the World Championship crown in 2007 and 2008. It is no wonder that the Irish Sporting Council is so eager to have women’s boxing included in the next Olympic games.

INCLUSION

With so many people across the world so eager to have it included in the competition, it simply wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t included in three years time. When there is such a healthy competition at both European and World Championship level, it is clear that there would be much for an expectant audience to marvel in should we see it take place in London. Chances are that people won’t find out what the decision of the Olympic Council for another while but, in the meantime, the top-class Boxers like Taylor will have to continue doing what they do best until they know whether they can compete or not.

Only men’s competition. No women’s competition.

Boxers qualify for the Olympics through performances at regional tournaments in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Oceania. The number of boxers accepted from any region depends upon the strength of boxing in that region and varies between weight divisions.

The boxers are paired off at random for the Olympic Games, without regard to ranking. They fight in a single-elimination tournament, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser dropping out of the competition. Winning boxers progress through the preliminary rounds to the quarterfinals and semifinals. The two semifinals winners fight for the gold and silver medals, while both losing semifinalists receive bronze medals.

Bouts consists of a total of four rounds. Each round is two minutes in length with a one-minute interval between each round. Contests are won by knockout or on points. A point is awarded for a scoring hit with marked part of the glove on the opponent’s head (side or front) or body (above the belt).

A panel of five judges decides which hits are scoring hits. Judges each have two buttons before them, one for each boxer, and they press the appropriate button when they believe a boxer delivers a scoring hit.

An electronic scoring system registers a point whenever three or more judges press the button for one boxer within a second of each other. No point is awarded for a hit unless three of the five judges agree.

When two boxers trade blows in a flurry of infighting, where no full-force punches can land, the judges wait until the end of the exchange and award a point to the boxer who got the better of it. At the end of the bout, when each judge’s points have been totaled, the boxer awarded the most points by a majority of the judges is declared the winner.

If two boxers end up with the same number of points, the judges decide a winner by assessing such factors as which of the two took the lead and showed better style.

If the judges determine those factors to be even, they turn to which competitor showed better defense. Punches to an opponent’s arms do not score points. Punches that are judged to have no force behind them do not score points.

When a boxer commits a foul, he faces a caution, a warning or, in extreme cases, disqualification. Two cautions for a particular offence mean an automatic warning, and three warnings of any kind mean disqualification.

Some of the more common fouls include hitting below the belt, holding, pressing an arm or elbow into the opponent’s face, forcing the opponent’s head over the ropes, hitting with an open glove, hitting with the inside of the glove and hitting the opponent on the back of the head, neck or body. Others include passive defense, not stepping back when ordered to break, speaking offensively to the referee and trying to hit the opponent immediately after the order to break.

During a bout, a boxer is considered down if, as a result of being hit, he touches the floor with any part of his body besides his feet. He also is down if he is even partly outside the ropes or hanging on them helplessly from being hit, or if he still is standing but is judged to be unable to continue.

When a boxer is down, the referee starts counting from one to 10 seconds. The count now is timed electronically, with a beep sounding for each number, but referees often still choose to call them out. The referee also is required to signal the count to the downed boxer by holding a hand in front of him and counting with his fingers. If the boxer is still down after the 10 seconds, the opponent wins on a knockout.

Even if a boxer gets back on his feet immediately, he is obliged to take a mandatory eight-count. After the eight seconds, the referee will give the command “Box” if he feels the match should continue. If the boxer gets to his feet but falls again without receiving another blow, the referee starts counting at eight.

A boxer who is down and being counted can be saved by the bell only in the final round of the final. In all other rounds and bouts, the count continues after the bell sounds.

If any boxer takes three counts in one round or four counts in the bout, the referee will stop the fight and declare the opposing boxer the winner.

If the referee has to stop a bout in the first round because a boxer has suffered a cut eye or a similar injury, the other boxer is declared the winner. If it happens in the second or third round, though, the judges’ point tallies up to that time determine the winner.

Three doctors sit at ringside and each has the authority to stop a bout if medical reasons appear to necessitate it

If both boxers go down at the same time, counting continues as long as one remains down. If both remain down at 10, the boxer with the most points is declared the winner.

Other ways a boxer may be declared the winner during a bout include the referee stopping the bout because the opponent is taking too much punishment, or the opponent being disqualified or withdrawing, perhaps because of injury. Also, the opponent’s seconds could decide he is suffering too much punishment and throw in the towel.

Boxers are required to shake hands before the first round and after the results have been declared.

The age limits for Olympic boxing are a minimum age of 17 and a maximum age of 34.

Boxers must be clean shaven or facial hair restricted to a small moustache no longer than the length of the upper lip. Beards are banned.

Before every bout, a medical examiner must declare the boxers fit.

Boxers must weigh in every day.

There are 11 weight divisions (with maximum weights) as follows:

• Light flyweight (48 kg)
• Flyweight (51kg)
• Bantamweight (54kg)
• Featherweight (57kg)
• Lightweight (60kg)
• Light welterweight (64kg)
• Welterweight (69kg)
• Middleweight (75kg)
• Light heavyweight (81kg)
• Heavyweight (91kg)
• Super heavyweight (more than 91kg)

Boxers must wear boxing gloves conforming to AIBA standards. Gloves weigh 10 ounces and feature a white strip to mark the main hitting area.

Competitors wear either red or blue.

Bouts are conducted in a square ring measuring 6.1 metres inside the ropes on each side. The floor of the ring consists of canvas stretched over a soft underlay, and it extends 45.72 centimetres outside the ropes.

Each side of the ring has four ropes running parallel to it. The lowest one runs 40.66cm above the ground, and the ropes are 30.48cm apart. The corners of the ring are distinguished by colors. The corners occupied by the boxers are coloured red and blue, and the other two corners, called “neutral” corners, are white.