Boxing Amateur

World Boxing Association

The World Boxing Association (WBA) was founded in 1921 as the National Boxing Association (NBA)—a national regulating body of the United States. On August 23, 1962, the NBA became the WBA—a Venezuelan-based worldwide regulating body, which today has its head office in Panama. According to WBA championship rules, when a champion holds at least one title of one of the other three major sanctioning bodies, the boxer is granted special recognition: he is called the undisputed world champion and is given more time between mandatory title defences. The “regular” WBA world title is vacated if it is one of the titles the respective boxer holds. When a boxer defends his WBA title for the fifth consecutive time, he is normally granted the “WBA Super Belt”.

World Boxing Council

The World Boxing Council (WBC) was founded in Mexico City, Mexico on February 14, 1963 in order to establish an international regulating body. The WBC established many of today’s safety measures in boxing, such as the standing eight-count, a limit of 12 rounds instead of 15, and additional weight classes. In its discretion, the WBC may designate and recognize, upon a two-thirds majority vote of their Board of Governors, one or more emeritus world champions in each weight class. Such a recognition is for life and is only bestowed upon present or past WBC world champions. The following boxers have earned the Emeritus Championship appellation throughout their careers: Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Kostya Tszyu, Manny Pacquiao, Érik Morales, and Édgar Sosa.

In September 2009, the WBC created its new “Diamond Championship”. This belt was created as an honorary championship exclusively to award the winner of a historic fight between two high-profile boxers. The inaugural Diamond Belt was awarded on November 14, 2009 to Manny Pacquiao who won his seventh weight division world title via 12th round technical knockout over Miguel Ángel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

International Boxing Federation

The International Boxing Federation (IBF) originated in September 1976 as the United States Boxing Association (USBA) when American members of the WBA withdrew in order to legitimize boxing in the United States with “unbiased” ratings. In April 1983, the organization established an international division that was known as the United States Boxing Association-International (USBA-I). In May 1984, the New Jersey-based USBA-I was renamed and became the IBF.

World Boxing Organization

The World Boxing Organization (WBO) was founded in San Juan, Puerto Rico (which is a self-governing commonwealth of the United States) in 1988. Its motto is “dignity, democracy, honesty.” A boxer may be considered for designation for “Super Champion” status when he meets the criteria under Section 14 of WBO Regulations. Besides the beltholders that are called “Super Champion” by the WBO, there are some more fighters that have been named “WBO Super Champion” like Bernard Hopkins, Óscar De La Hoya, Juan Díaz, Marco Antonio Barrera, Joe Calzaghe, Kelly Pavlik. Some media sites do not include the WBO in their list of champions, whereas others do.

many people want to win their betting but don’t know about introduction to sports betting at the sport champion, firstly we must know sports betting tips and tricks.

These current world boxing championships are a elements for measuring the boxing level as sport and professional job, even for sports betting.

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.

With the low ratings that many boxing matches have received, and the extremely high ratings that MMA has received, is it reasonable to conclude that boxing is losing the battle?

Boxing has fallen out of favor in recent years for many good reasons:  There are too many shady promoters (can we say Don King?), too many weight classes, too many weight divisions, too many “manufactured” stars, and too little of what boxing fans need:  Great fights between great fighters.

In the wake of MMA-Mixed Martial Arts-many have questioned the continued viability of boxing.  Pay per view trends in each sport were beginning to support that claim.  Mixed Martial Arts, once relegated to the blood and lust fans, regulated itself (or was regulated!) and became a sport with true cross-over appeal.  The pay per view numbers began to meet and exceed those of prized boxing matches.

Boxing and MMA are two different sports.  Many will say “fighting is fighting is fighting.”  True, in each sport, the competitors go to war and seek to beat the other into submission, but that is where the similarities end.  Boxing is (or was?) pure, natural and…sweet with a storied history.  MMA is new, raw, and much broader.  A fighter can use multiple skills from wrestling to Jujitsu to defeat their opponent.

MMA captured the viewership of many boxing fans not for the blood and guts (its rawness!) but because it was beginning to show signs of what people loved about boxing:  competitors willing to lay everything on the line to beat their opponent.

We recently witnessed the last fight of one of MMA’s greatest fighters, Chuck Lidell.  He embodies the phrase lay it on the line.  When Chuck Lidell walked into the ring, he would give you everything he had, risking life and limb (a literal statement in MMA) to provide a great fight.

When was the last time you have seen this in boxing?  The boxer laying everything on the line in the ring?  The recently retired (and now becoming unretired) greatest pound-for- pound boxing champion is Floyd Mayweather Jr.  With such amazing skill, he never once seemed to give everything he had, or risk anything, in the ring.  True, he would always win fights, but he never won the hearts and minds of the people.  He was always in it for him, not for you, not for the fans.  The people paid Floyd Mayweather Jr.  He did not pay them back.

In this manner, boxing lost its fan base.  The people decided to stop paying because they were not being paid back.

However, just when it looked like boxing was going to receive a knockout punch, recent boxing champions, like Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines, are proving their mettle and their willingness to lay it on the line.

The battle between MMA and boxing is not yet over.  It’s in the mid-rounds and boxing has recently caught a second wind.

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.

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.