Has dropping from 15 rounds limit to 12 increased boxers safety ?

Wonderful posts guys! A am a huge wholehearted advocate of bringing back the 15-round fight.

 

No it hasn`t, most deaths in the history of the sport have taken place well before the championship rounds 13, 14 & 15, so I fail to see how it has done anything else but take away the prestige and meaning from what it is to fight for the title. 12 rounds are for elimination bouts to determine who gets to fight the champ, and it should go right back to being that way immediately, not to determine who the champion is, but of course this will never happen unfortunately.

 

The reduction of title fights from 15 to 12 rounds hasn't accomplished a thing except to *******ize boxing..to sell out like a ***** to television..boxing was f**ked and not even kissed in that deal..and it's bull**** to say that it's been beneficial for the safety of boxers..and we know that was bogus reason to begin with for tampering with one of boxing's most significant time honored traditions..none of the ruling nabobs of boxing ever gave a rats ass for the "safety of boxers"..it was a case of boxing being prostituted by Jose Sillyman and others for the sake of fitting better into a one hour tv format. I say BRING BACK THE 15 ROUND TITLE LIMIT...it would be a huge, major step on the road to restoring boxing back to it's great past.

 

I have said this in the past. A look at the Ring Record Book makes it clear that not a great deal of history was lost in reducing fights down to a limit of 15 rounds. Much more often than not, the ultimate outcome of a longer match was determined by the end of 15. (Two of the very few high profile exceptions were Jeffries-Corbett I and Johnson-Willard, which became endurance contests that rewarded the inferior boxer.) Kid Lewis did manage to produce four stoppages between rounds 15 and 20, but when a fight that was scheduled for more than 15 rounds went beyond that distance, it usually went the limit, with the fighter ahead after 15 retaining that lead. Gans-Nelson I would probably have been stopped in round 15 today. The classic championship distance came to be standardized as a matter of natural selection. Arbitrarily chopping off those final three rounds was nothing less than the amputation of an essential limb.

 

Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini and Duk Koo Kim.

Kim went into a coma after the fight and died a week or so later.

 

I feel you, friend. Particularly now in October, postseason baseball time.

Baseball stood out among the major team sports: two major leagues, four divisions, one champion per division after a grueling 162-game season. Four champions going into the postseason. Otherwise, whether you came in second or last in your division, you were gone.

The pitcher having to bat is so much a part of the sport's true essence. The DH has watered it down.

Turning a blind eye to illegal performance-enhancer-use has been another blow to the heart of the game: time was when base running, bunting, contact hitting and a fielder's good throwing arm were often key. Now, the most heavily financed rosters simply bludgeon their hapless opposition with routine home runs and extra-base hits that in other eras would have been routine fly balls.

Same with boxing, the original eight weight divisions, one champion per division, and the 15-round championship distance.

An amateur begins with three-round battles. If he is ever good enough to become pro, he dreams of becoming world champion some day, but used to know there was one world champion looming over his division and that to ever wrest the title from him, said fledgling would have to do it over a marathon 15-round distance.

Four rounds, eight rounds, ten rounds, twelve round eliminators. And then, the championship distance! A title meant something when there was only one champion and to dispute that title a fighter had to be ready for a 45-minute war, not merely a souped-up eliminator-distance contest.

This longer distance inherently entails greater risks, but this is where proper preparation and officiating will protect a fighter from possible injury. The first-and-foremost priority must always be the fighter's well-being, which in large part means stopping the bout the second the fighter is defenseless and within taking one needless punch. In this regard, kudos forever to Richard Steele. Stated clearly: I believe the best safety policy for fighters is, not breathlessness over 15-round-scheduled bouts, but pulling a guy out once he is clearly losing and at risk of injury, thus saving him unnecessary head blows in decimated physical condition, and letting him see and fight another day.

The tragedy of the seminal Mancini-Duk-Koo Kim bout was that the fight was not stopped in the 13th round, when an exhausted, banged-up, still-furious Kim took a beating, was on legs that were giving way (twice he fell to the canvas unprompted!), and yet was allowed to come out for Round 14. Richard Green has sadly paid his price, but also, where was Kim's own Eddie Futch, and where was the compassionate ring doctor?

Mexico can offer something of value here. It is my observation that Mexican referees have traditionally been much more empathetic to fighters, with almost fatherly instinct stopping bouts upon the first sign of true distress. I know this attitude can be seen as squeamish, but, isn't early better than late? A fighter's safety must come before the paying crowd's frenzied desire for further entertainment, when the result most likely would not have been any different.

Also, hydration is key to protecting the brain, so weigh-ins should be the morning of the fight. Only a true welterweight should fight for the welterweight title.

Louis-Conn, Marciano-Walcott, Leonard-Hearns. The best man won in the crucible. These three fights are enough to demonstrate that the 15-round distance quite simply separates men from boys.

With proper oversight, empathy and competence, there is no reason to limit an individual who has already decided to pursue a risk-filled occupation nor the splendor of the true contesting of "the greatest title in the whole world, babe."