Boxing Amateur

Pierce Egan, the famed 19th-century boxing journalist who coined the term “sweet science,” wrote that “Drummers and boxers, to acquire excellence, must begin young.”

It is as if the fates conspired to push 22-year-old Deontay Wilder toward pugilism just to prove Egan wrong. The 6-foot-7 heavyweight, whose bronze medal on Friday kept alive the U.S. streak of winning a boxing medal in every Olympics in which it competed, never meant to be a boxer. Not like his USA Boxing teammates, all of whom were ducking and diving by age 12.

Wilder grew up as a basketball player in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He was in his freshman year playing at Shelton Community College when his girlfriend became pregnant. It wasn’t by design. An early ultrasound showed that Wilder’s daughter would be born with spina bifida.

“Our hearts dropped,” Wilder said. “Doctors gave us the choice to terminate the pregnancy, but after a while I just said, it really doesn’t matter, this is my little girl.”

Wilder dropped out of school and found work at Red Lobster and driving a Budweiser truck so he could support his daughter and shuttle her to doctors and hospitals to fix her clubbed feet. But there was a hole in his heart where basketball had been, and with team sports out of the question, boxing was something that offered a flexible schedule. Thus, 3-year-old Naieya Wilder helped keep the U.S. medal streak alive by turning her daddy to boxing. “She’s healthy and smart,” Wilder said, proudly.

For the first time in 20 years, USA Boxing established a residence program and required Olympic boxers to live in Colorado Springs beginning last September, a response to America’s dearth of boxing gold in recent Olympics after a gilded history. Wilder, with his coach’s blessing, seized the opportunity to “play catch up,” he says, with intensive training.

But other team members resented being plucked from their long-time coaches. David Ali, father of 20-year-old lightweight Sadam Ali, who lost his opening bout, said before the Olympics that Sadam “could have gotten better training [at home in New York]. He has two trainers here.”

Light welterweight Javier Molina, 18, who lost his first fight at the Olympics, said that the residence program “takes me out of my comfort zone. The only thing I like is I get to know the other Olympians, but I don’t know if that’ll help me. This isn’t like a basketball team.” Molina said that while the USA Boxing coaches are very good coaches, Roberto Luna, the man who has coached him since he was eight, “knows my weaknesses.”

It didn’t help that some of the coaches were loath to part with their prized pupils, and many continued to exert influence from afar by email and phone. Wilder’s coach, Jay Deas, bought into the idea that Wilder needed to make up for lost time, and “did not interfere,” says USA Boxing coach Dan Campbell. “Other coaches didn’t want to cooperate.”

In the broader view, though, Egan had a point about experience. This U.S. team was extremely young, with an average age just older than 20, and only one returning Olympian, world champion flyweight Rau’shee Warren, who lost his opening bout.

Wilder could use more amateur bouts to hone his skills, but his punishing power — in a test prior to the Olympics, his jab measured stronger than all but one other U.S. boxer’s power punch — may ensure this is his last Olympics. Wilder said he’s already gotten calls from promoters. In other countries, so-called amateurs enjoy great financial support.

“International boxers, like Cubans, they get paid to stay amateur; we don’t get paid to stay,” said Ali, the first Olympic team member since Riddick Bowe in 1988 to hail from New York City, where boxing gyms have dwindled from a high of 150 in the mid-1980s to 50. “So we go for it once, and turn pro.”

To the detriment of both amateur and professional boxing.

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.

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.

Amateur boxing is practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games, and in many other venues sponsored by amateur boxing associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration and fighters wear head protection, so this type of competition prizes point-scoring (based on number of clean punches landed) rather than physical power. Bouts comprise four rounds of two minutes in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, and four rounds of two minutes in a national ABA (Amateur Boxing Association) bout, each with a one-minute interval between rounds..

Men’s senior bouts changed in format from four, two minute rounds to three, three minute rounds on January 1 2009.
Headgear is mandatory in amateur boxing

Competitors wear protective headgear and gloves with a white strip across the knuckle. A punch is considered a scoring punch only when the boxers connect with the white portion of the gloves. Each punch that lands on the head or torso is awarded a point. A referee monitors the fight to ensure that competitors use only legal blows (a belt worn over the torso represents the lower limit of punches – any boxer repeatedly landing “low blows” is disqualified). Referees also ensure that the boxers don’t use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from swinging (if this occurs, the referee separates the opponents and orders them to continue boxing. Repeated holding can result in a boxer being penalized, or ultimately, disqualified). Referees will stop the bout if a boxer is seriously injured, if one boxer is significantly dominating the other or if the score is severely imbalanced.[1] Bouts which end this way may be noted as “RSC” (referee stopped contest) with notations for an outclassed opponent (RSCO), outscored opponent (RSCOS), injury (RCSI) or head injury (RSCH).

History

Amateur boxing emerged as a sport during the mid-late 1800s, partly as a result of the moral controversies surrounding professional prize-fighting. Originally lampooned as an effort by upper and middle-class gentlemen to co-opt a traditionally working class sport, the safer, “scientific” style of boxing found favor in schools, universities and in the armed forces, although the champions still usually came from among the urban poor.

The Queensberry Amateur Championships continued from 1867 to 1885, and so, unlike their professional counterparts, amateur boxers did not deviate from using gloves once the Queensberry Rules had been published. In the United Kingdom, the Amateur Boxing Association (A.B.A.) was formed in 1880 when twelve clubs affiliated. It held its first championships the following year. Four weight classes were contested, Featherweight (9 stone), Lightweight (10 stone), Middleweight (11 stone, 4 pounds) and Heavyweight (no limit). (A stone is equal to 14 pounds.) By 1902, American boxers were contesting the titles in the A.B.A. Championships, which, therefore, took on an international complexion. By 1924, the A.B.A. had 105 clubs in affiliation.

Boxing first appeared at the Olympic Games in 1904 and, apart from the Games of 1912, has always been part of them. From 1972 through 2004, Cuba and the United States have won the most Gold Medals, 29 for Cuba and 21 for the U.S. Internationally, Olympic boxing spread steadily throughout the first half of the 20th century, but when the first international body, the Federation Internationale de Boxe Olympic (International Olympic Boxing Federation) was formed in Paris in 1920, there were only five member nations.

In 1946, however, when the International Amateur Boxing Association (A.I.B.A.) was formed in London, twenty-four nations from five continents were represented, and the A.I.B.A. has continued to be the official world federation of amateur boxing ever since. The first World Amateur Boxing Championships were staged in 1974.[2]

Computer scoring was introduced to the Olympics in 1992. Each of the five judges has a keypad with a red and a blue button. The judges must press a button for which ever corner they feel lands a scoring blow. Three out of the five judges must press the button for the same boxer within a one-second window in order for the point to score. A legal scoring blow is that which is landed cleanly with the white knuckle surface of the glove, within the scoring area (middle of the head, down the sides and between the hips through the belly button, and the boxer can’t be committing a foul (slapping, ducking head, wrestling, holding, etc). As long as the punches land within the scoring area, they are legal and that includes body punches, as well as those to the face. When computer scoring is used, and one opponent is leading by 20 points at any time before the fourth round, the referee is notified and the bout is stopped on an RSCOS – meaning the referee stopped the contest as the opponent was outscored.

Recent developments in sports technology for boxing[3] has introduced systems like the Automated Boxing Scoring System which uses instrumented boxing gear to send information back to a ring-side computer for the purposes of scoring. The system was developed to overcome the shortcomings of the computer scoring system, however the automated system has not been introduced as the official scoring system yet and could take some time to become accepted by boxing officials.

Rules And Regulation (United Kingdom)

Amateur boxing has an age limit that states that you must be at least 11 years of age to have bouts, but there is no training age limit.

Seniors 1. A Boxer becomes a Senior on his 17th birthday. When he reaches his 34th birthday, he will no longer be allowed to box, and his ME3 must be returned to his Association Registrar for cancellation.

Round Duration 2. Boxers will box 3 x 2 minute rounds and males may box 4 x 2 minute rounds or 3 x 3 minute rounds by agreement. Females may box 4 x 2 minute rounds by agreement. In Open Championships and Internationals, males will box 3 x 3 minute rounds and females 4 x 2 minute rounds. In every case there will be an interval of one minute between rounds.

3. A Senior Boxer may participate in a maximum of 18 contests per season excluding Championships and International matches.

Classification 4. There shall be three classes of Senior Boxers. The appropriate classification being: (a) Novice A Novice is a boxer who has not competed in any stage of an Open Senior Championship. A Novice Boxer must not compete against an Open Class Boxer other than in recognised Championship (b) Intermediate An Intermediate is a Boxer who has: (a) entered and competed in an Open Senior Championship but has not won a Regional Association Title, (b) won a Novice Class ‘B’ Title. (c) won a CYP Class C Title. (d) returned from professional boxing. (c) Open

An Open is a Boxer who has: (a) won an ABAE Senior Championship Regional Association Title. (b) boxed at Senior level for his Country. A Regional Association Executive Committee may upgrade a Boxer who in their opinion, is clearly above the prevailing standard for his current level of classification. Similarly, a boxer may be downgraded if his ability, in their opinion is below the standard prevailing in his current classification.

Juniors 1. A boxer is a junior from his 11th birthday (at which age he is eligible to hold an ME3), until his 17th birthday. 2. (a) Boxers under the age of 17 years MUST NOT concede more than 12 months in age, except where necessary for specific International Events. (b) Novice boxers aged 17 years can compete against boxers aged 16 years provided 43 there is no more than 12 months difference in age. (c) It is recommended that Junior boxers do not concede age, weight and experience in a contest. The final decision for any contest is the responsibility of the OIC. Rounds Duration 2. Unless the conditions for Championships or other authorised events prescribe otherwise the duration of bouts for Junior boxers will be as follows: Both boxers aged over 11 years and under 14 years – 3 x 1.5 minute rounds One boxer aged 13 and the other 14 years – 3 x 1.5 minute rounds Both boxers aged 14 years – 3 x 2 minute rounds One boxer aged 14 years and the other 15 years – 3 x 2 minutes rounds Both boxers aged 15 years or over – 3 x 2 minute rounds, or 4 x 2 minutes by agreement. 3 x 3 minute rounds by agreement (Male boxers only)

United States amateur boxing organizations

Amateur boxing can be considered any amateur fight at a local boxing gym, but there are several tournaments that take place to determine amateur champions.

There are several different amateur sanctioning bodies in the United States, including the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) of the United States, the Golden Gloves Association of America, and USA Boxing.

The Golden Gloves is an amateur boxing tournament that is fought at both the national level and the regional level. Although the Golden Gloves typically refers to the National Golden Gloves, it can also refer to the Intercity Golden Gloves, the Chicago Golden Gloves, the New York Golden Gloves, and other regional Golden Gloves tournaments. The winners of the regional tournaments fight in a national competition annually.

USA Boxing also sanctions a national tournament to determine who will compete on the United States National boxing team at the Olympic Games.