If you could change one rule about boxing what would it be?

Sometimes lineage fights only happen for legitimacy but have no real value. I heard Tyson beating spinks was mostly done because of lineage and it was one of his easiest wins ever. Had he not fought this meaningless fight, someone else would have been linear champion... The man who beat the man sounds good but often it is the man who beat the old man ..

 

A lot of things that I don't like about boxing today revolves around the scoring systems and judges. I think there must be way more accountability for the scorecards judges come up with including:
1. On demand judges must be required to give detailed round-by-round explanation why they scored the fight the way they did, and this must be done publicly.
2. There must be some sort of committee who would enforce some sort of punishment to judges who fail to provide valid explanations for their decisions.
3. Also, I believe there should be a procedure which will enable the committee to overrule the fight result in exceptional cases.

I could go further - there are many things to add and fix; but no one seems to be interested in that.

You can be corrupt and incompetent, and the worst that can happen to you is that you'll face some public outcry (which is not that bad, considering judges are not public figures).

 

12 rounds - needs to be 13.

 

Heavyweights cannot weight more than 240 lbs. Fighters can only gain 5% of the division weight after official weight in.

 

I want more lenient refs. Don't immediately break clinches if the hands are free, let fighters work out of the clinch and make the clinch dangerous again. Clinching is good and so is inside fighting.

 

Treat clinching the same as taking a knee.

 

Stop male boxers wearing skirts.

 

Just one!? Make heavyweight title fights 15 rounds again. Other than that there seems to be an issue with current weigh in systems. Sports science and training is ahead of boxing currently as reflected by the profusion of so called weight bullies these days. Almost seems like we need to go back to 8 divisions.

 

Huge Kudos? Is that what you call your angry dragon?

 

This is a real problem in boxing, it’s slowing down the sport. Not what you want these days.

 

Harsher and more aggressive penalties for clinching.

If Turki is getting bored of runners, this should help solve the issue somewhat.

 

Uniformly applied “10 counts”. How hard is it?

If the average count applied is 13 seconds or whatever, then make it that for all fighters - per a timing device all the way through - perhaps including a timer display above the ring and amplified count.

Everything else is timed (or intended to be timed) to actual seconds, incl. rounds, rest periods etc.

The old comeback/explanation that a count is as long or as short as the ref’s discretion allows for doesn’t hold for mine - it is open to misuse and abuse, and even if non intentional, it can lead to inequity.

Also, if a fighter can’t be deemed fit to continue without requiring further elaborate checks that actually equate to an extension of respite time, then the ref should stop the fight based on what he can deduce within the uniformly afforded time frame.

At least in the case of Tyson Fury, in 2 fights vs Wilder and Ngannou, the checks involved saw 23 secs elapse between the times Fury hit the deck and when the fighters were waved back on.

I’m the last one to make excuses for Mike Tyson but the count for Buster Douglas was long - 14 seconds. Now you can’t reverse that after the fact - because it leaves open the contention that Douglas might’ve arisen in accordance with the applied count and before the toll of “10”.

Just imo, Douglas barely scraped himself up as it was - and he was still unsteady when on his feet.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that Douglas needed the whole 14 secs but imagine if the count was actually a flat 10 or 12 or so secs - he gets counted out with no fast count applied - Mike wins via a sensational come from behind KO.

Such an outcome would not have involved nor invoked any arguable controversy - so, in all possibility, we have two opposing outcomes that we have to readily accept either way, based merely on the meter the ref chooses to toll for his count??

If you watch/listen closely, the ref Meyran’s count also notably slows at the business end of the count - as if in accordance with and in accomodation of Buster’s efforts to rise before the toll of “10” - as opposed to Buster himself arising in accordance with the count.

Sure, Mike got a long count after the fact of Douglas’ count but that long count would’ve been a moot point if Meyran didn’t afford a long count to Buster in the first instance -

Mike himself actually arose before the toll of “10” - but the ref, correctly, immediately stopped the fight.

 

Another one I would like the "mandatory" system to be abolished. Alphabet bodies need to fo with the notion they can force the champ to fight an arbitrary top 10er from their proprietary rankings. The idea for mandatorys existing is for emergencys where someone the champion refuses to fight is widely considered the best fighter in the division. But the alphabet people have determined they have the right to choose an opponent for their champions every year. Not because it makes sense but because they can.

And its an utter disaster. Most peoples complaints with the multi belt system all lead back to the existence of mandatorys. If you take them away lineages would only be broken because the champion is leaving the weight class or retirement. And thats the way it should be.