Sould fifteen round championship fights make a return?

[CGM]

IMO the decision to go from 15-12 was somewhat of a kneejerk decision made to satisfy the general public that something was being done. I don't think a whole lot of thought went into the decision, for starters I really doubt they did research to determine the proportion of fatalities that resulted from injuries suffered in rounds 13-15 of title fights. And I rather doubt that this decision saved many lives. Probably there is proportionately more serious injuries and fatalities in non-title fights.

I agree.

I don't think 15 round fights are what led to serious injuries. What leads to injuries are fights that should be stopped but aren't, and that can happen in a 4 round fight or an 8 round fight or a 12 round fight too.

I waver back and forth on the 15 vs. 12 issue. When we think back to the era of 15-rounders, we tend to only think of the classic 15 round fights, and we forget that there were plenty of boring 15 rounders too. There were plenty of 15 rounders where Rounds 13-15 were just two exhausted guys clutching and grabbing each other.

Would I have liked to see Morales-Barrera or Pacquiao-Marquez for 15 rounds? Sure.

But how about Taylor-Spinks or Wlad-Ibragimov... does anyone wish those fights went 15 rounds? It would have just been 9 more minutes of boredom.

Except with the Kim fight, there was no reason to stop the fight. He was fighting back and defending.
Quarry suffered from boxer dementia,Ali has Parkinsons,Frazier has slurred speach

So what's your point? I 'm pretty sure you are against going to 15 rounds. Are you arguing a cause & effect relationship between 15 round fights and all of the cases you have mentioned here? Cause I really am not convinced that there would have been significant less chance of these situations if they had fought 12 round fights. That is the issue.

[Trainer Monkey]

I agree.

I don't think 15 round fights are what led to serious injuries. What leads to injuries are fights that should be stopped but aren't, and that can happen in a 4 round fight or an 8 round fight or a 12 round fight too.

I waver back and forth on the 15 vs. 12 issue. When we think back to the era of 15-rounders, we tend to only think of the classic 15 round fights, and we forget that there were plenty of boring 15 rounders too. There were plenty of 15 rounders where Rounds 13-15 were just two exhausted guys clutching and grabbing each other.

Would I have liked to see Morales-Barrera or Pacquiao-Marquez for 15 rounds? Sure.

But how about Taylor-Spinks or Wlad-Ibragimov... does anyone wish those fights went 15 rounds? It would have just been 9 more minutes of boredom.

Except with the Kim fight, there was no reason to stop the fight. He was fighting back and defending.
Quarry suffered from boxer dementia,Ali has Parkinsons,Frazier has slurred speach

So what's your point? I 'm pretty sure you are against going to 15 rounds. Are you arguing a cause & effect relationship between 15 round fights and all of the cases you have mentioned here? Cause I really am not convinced that there would have been significant less chance of these situations if they had fought 12 round fights. That is the issue.

Sure there is, ever since theyve pulled the fights back to 12 rounds there seem to be less boxers who retired who can barely talk.
Why risk them like that,its not going to improve the sport anyway,it wont decrease draws,draws were just as common under 15 round fights as they are now

[CGM]

Except with the Kim fight, there was no reason to stop the fight. He was fighting back and defending.
Quarry suffered from boxer dementia,Ali has Parkinsons,Frazier has slurred speach

So what's your point? I 'm pretty sure you are against going to 15 rounds. Are you arguing a cause & effect relationship between 15 round fights and all of the cases you have mentioned here? Cause I really am not convinced that there would have been significant less chance of these situations if they had fought 12 round fights. That is the issue.

Sure there is, ever since theyve pulled the fights back to 12 rounds there seem to be less boxers who retired who can barely talk.
Why risk them like that,its not going to improve the sport anyway,it wont decrease draws,draws were just as common under 15 round fights as they are now

fair enough, if that's really true then I suppose one can hardly support 15 rds. I was thinking more of the immediate traumatic injury or death like that suffered by Kim. But the slurred speech thing, dementia, etc. kinda makes sense.

[Trainer Monkey]

So what's your point? I 'm pretty sure you are against going to 15 rounds. Are you arguing a cause & effect relationship between 15 round fights and all of the cases you have mentioned here? Cause I really am not convinced that there would have been significant less chance of these situations if they had fought 12 round fights. That is the issue.

Sure there is, ever since theyve pulled the fights back to 12 rounds there seem to be less boxers who retired who can barely talk.
Why risk them like that,its not going to improve the sport anyway,it wont decrease draws,draws were just as common under 15 round fights as they are now

fair enough, if that's really true then I suppose one can hardly support 15 rds. I was thinking more of the immediate traumatic injury or death like that suffered by Kim. But the slurred speech thing, dementia, etc. kinda makes sense.

Its a risk reward thing
As far as the reward,usually those last 3 round used to be dull at best,so your not improving fight quality
It doesnt reduce the risk of the draw,they used to happen all the time in the 15 round era
And as far as the health of the fighter,even great HW's from that era slurr their speech
And those are the luckier ones
The way Quarry lived his last years was absoultely pathetic
Its not just boxing concussive dementia can happen in either
Former NFL Safety Andre Waters committed suicide while suffering from it
WWE Wrestler Chris Benoit was suffering from it when he killed himself and his family
Its just not worth the risks

[SweetPea]

Except with the Kim fight, there was no reason to stop the fight. He was fighting back and defending.
Quarry suffered from boxer dementia,Ali has Parkinsons,Frazier has slurred speach

So what's your point? I 'm pretty sure you are against going to 15 rounds. Are you arguing a cause & effect relationship between 15 round fights and all of the cases you have mentioned here? Cause I really am not convinced that there would have been significant less chance of these situations if they had fought 12 round fights. That is the issue.

Sure there is, ever since theyve pulled the fights back to 12 rounds there seem to be less boxers who retired who can barely talk.
Why risk them like that,its not going to improve the sport anyway,it wont decrease draws,draws were just as common under 15 round fights as they are now

I think the big difference between now and the old days isn't that title fights are 12 instead of 15.

The big difference is that refs/cornermen are much faster to stop fights, no matter what round it is. If you watch old fights, you'll see fights where guys can barely stand up, yet the fight continues. There are tons of times where I'll watch an old fight, and I'll say to myself, "Wow, if that fight were taking place now, the ref definitely would've already stopped it."

[Mikkel_K]

So what's your point? I 'm pretty sure you are against going to 15 rounds. Are you arguing a cause & effect relationship between 15 round fights and all of the cases you have mentioned here? Cause I really am not convinced that there would have been significant less chance of these situations if they had fought 12 round fights. That is the issue.

Sure there is, ever since theyve pulled the fights back to 12 rounds there seem to be less boxers who retired who can barely talk.
Why risk them like that,its not going to improve the sport anyway,it wont decrease draws,draws were just as common under 15 round fights as they are now

I think the big difference between now and the old days isn't that title fights are 12 instead of 15.

The big difference is that refs/cornermen are much faster to stop fights, no matter what round it is. If you watch old fights, you'll see fights where guys can barely stand up, yet the fight continues. There are tons of times where I'll watch an old fight, and I'll say to myself, "Wow, if that fight were taking place now, the ref definitely would've already stopped it."

Also, people seem to have a lot less fights, only fighting 2-3 12-rounders a year. A fighter going 36 rounds in 12 months is highly active. In the past, not so much.