Was boxing better with 12 or 15 rounds?

Exactly, people would have to fight closer to their natural weight. There would be less of this absurd weight cutting going on.

 

There's very few fights in which rounds 13-on feature heavily fatigued fighters whaling on each other aimlessly.

There's Ali taking aim on nearly blind Frazier in Manila, Robinson using LaMotta as a punching bag from rounds 11 to 13...the tragedy of Mancini-Kim, but tragedies have happened in round 10, 11, after 15 back in the era of those crazy 30, 40 round fights....There's a whole list of fighters where not much happens in rounds 13-15, much like there's a lot of fights now where not much happens in the last 2-3 rounds.

There's no evidence that it's any safer now.