Useful Information on the Rules of Boxing – The Most Precise Combat Sport

Boxing is a combat kind of sport where athletes punch one another with their fists in special gloves. A referee controls a fight that can last up to 12 rounds. A win is awarded if an opponent is knocked down and fails to stand up in 10 seconds (knock-out) or when a boxer gets injured and is unable to continue the fight (technical knock-out). In all the other cases, the winner is decided by referees.

Boxing is the sport with a rich history. The first evidence of alike competitions was found at Sumerian and Egyptian drawings. Fist-fighting tournaments resembling modern boxing were organized in Ancient Greece. The real status of a combat sport was granted to boxing in 688 B.C. when fist-fighting competition became an obligatory part of the ancient Olympics. As for modern boxing itself, it appeared in England in the early 18th century.

Main Rules

All the boxing fights should be governed by strict rules that determine the conditions of fighting and are obligatory to follow for the boxers, referees, managers, promoters, and other people who participate in organizing the following competitions. It is up to the supervisor to control a fight and its organization.

A boxing fight lasts for 12 rounds maximum. The fights must have the gloves 170 g weight. This state of affairs, however, was not always the same. Up to 1982, boxing fights lasted for 15 rounds. The situation changed when Ray Mancini knocked-out Duk Koo Kim in the 14th round of their champion fight. The heavy injuries of the Korean fighter resulted in his death in 4 days after the fight. After this, the responsible boxing authorities decided to shorten fights from 15 to 12 rounds.

It is possible for professional boxers (which is opposed to amateur ones) to be knocked down a few times. If they manage to stand up in 10 seconds, the fights will be continued. With this, there are still some similarities between amateur and professional boxing. In short, they refer to prohibited actions. Thus, both professional and amateur boxers are prohibited to punch below the belt or punch with an open glove.

Boxing scoring follows the final countdown system. Each of two boxers on the ring has 10 points. After a round is over, a winner is said to preserve 10 points, while a loser is said to have only 9. If a boxer was knocked down once in a round, the round would end with the score of 10-8 (thus, two points are subtracted). If a boxer was knocked down two or three times, the round score would be 10-7 and 10-6, correspondingly. It can seldom happen that a round ends in a draw; in this case, the score of such a round is 10-10. It can happen even more seldom when a round is won by a boxer who was knocked down in the given found. In this case, the score should be 10-9 to the knocked down fighter. This can be explained by the fact that the official rules stipulate that figure 10 must be present in the final score.

Weight Categories

There are the following weight categories according to the World Boxing Council (WBC):

• Cruiserweight – 91 kg;
• Super middleweight – 76.2 kg;
• Super welterweight – 69.9 kg;
• Super bantamweight – 55.3 kg;
• Super flyweight – 52.6 kg;
• Light flyweight – 49.9 kg;
• Minimumweight – 48 kg.

Ring and Equipment

Professional bouts are held on the square ring with the sides of 5-6 meters. The ring is fixed in the canvas that are 90-120 cm above the floor level. The canvas surface should be firm, level, and covered with perfectly fixed planks that finish at least 60 cm outside each side of the ring. The surface is covered with thick felt or any other elastic material that satisfy all the safety conditions. 2.5-4 cm thick, this material is then covered with a tarpaulin or alike material. The material borders should be 50 cm outside the ring.

The ring territory is limited by four rows of the cable 3-5 cm in diameter. Wrapped in soft and smooth materials, the cables are strained between four corner posts. The cable rows are fixed at 30, 60, 90, and 120 cm height. Ring corners are equipped with pillows 20 cm wide and 5-7 cm thick to prevent the fighters from getting injured. The pillows and the cables in the two opposite corners should be of the red and blue colors.

The red corner is to leftward of the judges. The red and blue corners should be equipped with ladders for the boxers and cornermen, while the neutral corner should have the ladder for the main referee and the doctor. The corners with the boxers should be also equipped with a seat and water vessel.

The ring equipment also includes three seats for cornermen behind each ring corner and two litters. Also, three tables for side judges are set on three sides of the ring, and one table for the judge board is set facing the fourth side.

The ring should be illuminated from above; all the side spotlights or any other sources of light are prohibited during a bout. The set of ring equipment also includes boxing bell, whistle, seconds counters, microphones, and telephones for situations of extreme urgency.

Boxers

It is no surprise that boxing gloves must meet the corresponding requirements. Thus, representatives of the weight categories that are lower than 66 kg can wear 230-g gloves, while 280-g globes are suitable for those categories that are heavier than 66 kg.

Before every bout, boxers have to wrap their hands. For this, they can use gauze or crape rollers of 5 meters long and 5 cm wide. Court plaster is used to immobilize the roller. The court plaster should not exceed 2.5 meters long and 5 cm wide. It is prohibited to moisten the roller in any liquid. The court plaster is also used to fix glove lacing.

Official competitions are open for those boxers only who are older than 18 years. With this, the athletes must:

• perfectly know and follow the official rules;
• present the boxing license and health insurance card either directly to the supervisor or through one of his cornermen;
• enter his changing room no later than an hour before the bout;
• pass a doping test if he is asked to.

Judges

All the boxing competitions and tournaments should be served by the following officials:

1. Chief judge watches all the rules to be met and makes a final decision on all the technical issues.
2. Side judges evaluate boxers’ actions and make their decisions on a bout outcome. Official competitions are served by 3-5 side judges.
3. Timekeeper manages time and uses the boxing bell.
4. Public-address announcer communicates information during the breaks between rounds.
5. Referee is responsible for abidance by the rules directly within the ring and makes corresponding signals to boxers.
6. Competition commandant is responsible for a technical side of any tournament.
7. Besides, there are also authorized persons who should watch the boxers meet all the rules pre-fight.

Competitions can be served both by male and female referees. With this, referees who can serve professional tournaments are not allowed to server amateur competitions. Referees use three commands: Stop; Box; and Break. If there are any faults or violations of the rules, the referee should make a remark and show a corresponding gesture that would be understanding both for boxers and judges.

Fouls

Depending on a foul severity, a boxer can obtain a remark, warning or can be disqualified at all. If a minor foul was committed, a referee may not stop a bout, and a remark can be made during a break. Three remarks for the same foul will result in a warning. If a remark is made for a foul that has already been punished with a warning, the second warning is awarded. Three warnings will result in the boxer being disqualified.

To make every warning, the referee should stop the bout and notify the boxers and the side judges of his decision. A warning can immediately follow a severe foul. When it comes to extra severe or intentional fouls, they can be followed by a direct disqualification. Finally, every warning adds some points to the opponent.

Kinds of fouls:

• hitting below the belt;
• hitting with knees, legs, elbows, shoulders, and forearms;
• hitting with an open glove, wrist, and edge of the hand;
• punching the opponent’s spine, back of the head, kidneys, and nape of the neck;
• choking, grappling, pushing, and holding the opponent;
• using the cables to attack;
• driving the opponent’s head behind the cables line;
• clasping or throwing the opponent;
• low ducks or dives and dangerous head movements;
• hitting the opponent while his hands are under your control;
• hitting the opponent who is lying on the canvas or trying to stand up;
• turning one’s back upon the opponent;
• useless talks and offenses;
• ignoring the referee commands;
• aggressive behavior towards the referee;
• spitting out the mouth guard;
• holding the long arm in front of the opponent’s face.

Possible Outcomes

Every single boxing bout can result in one of the following outcomes:

• Decision. The side judges calculate the points and decide who is the winner of the event.
• Referee Technical Decision. A boxer voluntarily decides to not continue the fight. The given decision can also arise when a cornerman throws the white towel to the ring.
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• Technical Knock-out. The outcome arises when one of the boxers has a clear advantage over the other. To explain, when a boxer is skipping a lot of punches that can be dangerous for his health, the given outcome appears. Also, it is the case when a boxer gets seriously injured so that he is unable to continue the bout.

• Disqualification. If it happens that a boxer is disqualified during the bout, his opponent is said to be a winner. This decision is made by the referees.
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• Knock-out. A boxer is knocked down and is unable to continue the bout in 10 seconds.
• Draw. This outcome is possible only if it was previously discussed in the rules governing the particular event.
• Unexpected situations. When an accident that is beyond the Chief judge’s control occurs in the 1st or 2nd round, the bout is postponed. If such an accident occurs in any of the other rounds, the bout is said to be over and a winner is decided according to the present state of affairs.