Three changes to help boxing

[marbleheadmaui]

Our sport is facing myriad challenges. The lowest level of raw talent in 90 years, utterly corrupted sanctioning bodies and a thoroughly uneducated casual fan base. Rather than trying to take on ALL of the sport's issues, I am just going to argue for three all fight as opposed to business related. In no order.

1) A Return to 10-12-15 round fight structure-Prior to the Mancini-Kim fight casual fans were able to identify the importance of a fight simply by the number of rounds. A ten round fight was an ordinary fight between two experienced men but without a championship at stake. Twelve round fights signified that the winner would get a crack at the champ, an eliminator. Fifteen rounds was the championship distance. Now there is nothing magic about round numbers. Throughout boxing history title fights have been as long as "to a finish" and as short as ten rounds.It is the scaling of rounds, 10-12-15 that lets the casual fan make a judgement. As far as safety goes I have seen zero evidence that fifteen round fights actually are more dangerous than twelve round fights.

2. Eliminating the Technical Decision Rule-Prior to this abomination being introduced fifteen/twenty years ago, boxing injuries for 100+ years were simply addressed. As long as there was not a flagrant, obvious, intentional foul? A fighter either continued or lost by TKO. This meant that toughness, perseverance and a warrior ethic was highly prized. There was no incentive to talk a doctor into stopping the fight so you got a "do over" or a premature decision. Indeed, many of boxing's most storied nights are men dealing with terrible cuts (Mancini-Bramble II, Gonzales-Carbajal II, Marciano-Charles II, Arguello-Escalera II). Why did those men continue? Simple. If they didn't? They lost. With this awful technical decision rule, fighters and their corners have incentives to try to end the fight, robbing the fans of what they paid for and the sport of its elemental toughness. Hasim Rachman, James Toney, Robert Guerrero and a bunch of others have behaved badly and fans have rightly thrown up their hands. They should never have had the chance. For those of you who then say referees must be more diligent about calling fouls? I agree! But there is one other thing going on. Most of the time the cuts caused by clashing heads are the result of poor technique. Fighters haven't properly learned how to angle their head to protect their face when closing distance. When Devon Alexander said "one can't train for headbutts?" He was wrong.

3. Going Back to Same Day Weigh-Ins-In what universe is Victor Ortiz a welterweight in the same way Robinson, Basilio and Leonard were? He fights at above middleweight for God's sake. When boxing first broke into divisions? Fighters had to make weight immediately before entering the ring. In other words they FOUGHT at 147. As the sport got bigger and more carefully regulated and cards got longer, fighters weighed-in around noon the day of the fight when they got their physicals. So they fought close to the division in which they fought. Now? Fighting three divisions over the weigh-in isn't uncommon. IT IS CRAZY! It causes several problems. First, it screws with the continuity of the sport. We should NEVER ask how Ray Robinson would do against welters of today. Why? Because with day before weigh-ins? Ray was likely a lightweight. With same day weigh-ins? Today's welters wouldn't have made 147 at noon the day of the fight. Instead Ortiz, Floyd, Berto etc would have been fighting Mike McCallum or Marvin Hagler. Second, weigh-ins as currently structured makes weight cutting a boxing talent. Why is THAT a good thing? That produces devastating mismatches like Gatti-Gamache or size mismatches like Brandon Rios and Anthony Peterson. Sure they both made 135 the day before. But on fight night? A ten pound difference. For those who again argue safety, answer me this. Why is cutting weight the day before safer than simply fighting at one's natural weight? Me? I'd like to see weigh-ins done VERY close to fight time.

Now this one has two major problems. Just about everyone except Manny P. is going to have to jump at least one and probably two divisions. That may have the side benefit of eliminating 105 and maybe 108. The other is that it will eliminate what has become the sports last big pre-fight marketing and press opportunity, the Friday weigh-in.

What say you?