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

Discussion in 'World Boxing Forum' started by Mike_b, Jul 8, 2025.


  1. LoveThis

    LoveThis Sweet Science Full Member

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    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 ..
     
  2. zeratul

    zeratul Active Member Full Member

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    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).
     
  3. cross_trainer

    cross_trainer Liston was good, but no "Tire Iron" Jones Full Member

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    When you say that boxing's hierarchy is an illusion created by gloves, what do you mean?
     
  4. Glassbrain

    Glassbrain Well-Known Member Full Member

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    12 rounds - needs to be 13.
     
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  5. Braindamage

    Braindamage Baby Face Beast Full Member

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

    Dorrian_Grey It came to me in a dream Full Member

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    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.
     
  7. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    Treat clinching the same as taking a knee.
     
  8. kirk

    kirk l l l Staff Member

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    I dont mean a complete illusion, but just that its there, imo, and its more than I prefer.

    Bare knuckle fighting changes so much about boxing and what someone can and cant do, that the more I started seeing it and hearing the fighters talk about the differences they had to adjust to coming to BK, the more I felt quite a bit of high level boxing is a bit of a fantasy created by the more favorable conditions of large gloves.

    Things like; how much damage your face would actually be taking by taking those hits, how much more jarring it is for your chin to be hit by the more solid impact, how much more pain you have to actually tolerate not just in getting punched but in punching too, how much your defense has to change a bit because you dont have such large gloves to use as partial shields.

    Offense and aggression counts for a lot more and I think you need to be a much hardier individual to succeed the smaller you go with gloves.

    Three fights at the top of my head I think that would encapsulate the illusion Im talking about would be fights like Mayweather vs Maidana, Ward vs Kova 1, and Beterbiev vs Bivol. I think they are potentially strikingly different with smaller gloves, where the shots of Maidana and Beterbiev would get through more often, and do more damage when they did.

    Conversely, theres fights in BK that I think play out differently with boxing gloves... I think Malignaggi likely beats Artem in boxing and Luke probably beats Perry in any combat sport outside of BK.

    I think modern boxing gloves hinder aggression a bit more and help defenses more, thus allowing fighters that emphasize defense more certain advantages that wouldnt be there with small gloves or BK, ultimately putting them at the top when that wouldnt necessarily be the case, imo.


    I know Im using BK as an example but obviously by extension this would apply in part to mma gloves, just not to the same degree.
    We use to hold a lot of backyard fighting events back in the days, and with boxing gloves it was always your typical experience.
    We tried incorporating mma gloves into it and the first fight lasted like 30 seconds between two guys that had done rounds with boxing gloves before, and our second fight resulted in a hematoma so bad within minutes that we decided not to use mma gloves anymore lol.

    Ive been tempted to start my own local promotion of boxing with just mma gloves now as an adult.... but the hurdle to promoting your own events seems huge. Think I will look back into it though.
     
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  9. marro

    marro New Member Full Member

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    Stop male boxers wearing skirts.
     
  10. Dementia Pugulistica

    Dementia Pugulistica Well-Known Member Full Member

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    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.
     
  11. Dementia Pugulistica

    Dementia Pugulistica Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Huge Kudos? Is that what you call your angry dragon?
     
  12. Dementia Pugulistica

    Dementia Pugulistica Well-Known Member Full Member

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    This is a real problem in boxing, it’s slowing down the sport. Not what you want these days.
     
  13. Ice8Cold

    Ice8Cold Still raging that we didnt see Bowe V Lewis Full Member

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    Harsher and more aggressive penalties for clinching.

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

    Pugguy Ingo, The Thinking Man’s GOAT Full Member

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    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.
     
  15. Mike_b

    Mike_b Well-Known Member Full Member

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    100% sir. Not to mention Nate Campbell got a quick count after he was decked by Robbie Peden with a sucker Punch. Of course he was caught showboating with his hands down, making it extra heartbreaking that he lost in that manner to a fast count during that first fight.
     
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