15 Rounds of Boxing reduced to 12 & should it be announced of which fighter won the previous round?

Question

In the early 70's and into the middle 80's a Championship fight was always a scheduled 15 round fight. My question is why did the boxing commission lower the amount of rounds to be fought to 12? Now with an even amount of rounds (12) and it goes to the judges for a dissision, there is more of a chance of a draw happening rather than a unanimus or a split discission.

You always now the score of any other sporting event as it's happening except in boxing. If a boxer knew he was behind on points and lost the first round 10 - 9, don't you think he would step it up and try a little harder to win the next round to even things up? I don't know why it's a big secret to keep the score cards in boxing a secret until the fight is over if it goes the scheduled distance.

YOUR THOUGHTS................................

Answer 1

The reduction of rounds from 15 to 12 was for the health and safety of the boxers.

As far as draws go- do a bit of homework, and a touch of math- you will find that statistically there are fewer draws now than before.  This is likely due to the occurences of fights with an odd number of knockdowns being greater than the occurances of fights with an even number of knockdowns.

As far as showing the score in a fight- this was tried by I believe it was the WBC on a handful of cards last year, where the scores were shown after the 8th and 10th rounds or something like that.  It backfired- what should have made for great boxing simply did not deliver.

Look at it this way- if you are trailing after 8 rounds 6 rounds to 4 and you have been knocked down twice- do you think your opponent is going to let you off the hook?  If I knew I had a 4 or 5 point lead going into the 9th round, I would not fight- I would backpedal and run around the ring so fast Floyd Mayweather would say d**n!  I'd put in a decent effort to try to win round 9 or 10, but 11 and 12- if I have it won why would I jeopardize it?  That question is always asked from the point of view of the guy who trails on the scorecards- but when you look at it realistically fighters who have a fight wrapped up will not risk a knock out.

Answer 2

good idea...makes sense to me...

Answer 3

I don,t agree with the 12 rounds fights here are some examples if these fight were 12 rounds the better man would not have won. The first Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns fight Ray would have lost that fight  Cesare Chavez V. Meldrick Taylor Chavez would have lost John Tate V. Mike Weaver Mike would have lost there are many fight that you can name guys will die in the ring that is what the game is your head is not made to be hit with a base ball bat and that is what it,s like getting hit by some of these guys. They should not tell the fighter who won the round it takes away form the aggression for the most part a fighter know if he is winning or not now the judging is a different thing. This would put to much pressure on the judges you would not want to see a judge get hit in the back of the head with a beer bottle would you because that is what would happen. By shorting the fights the fighter have to change there straggles start quicker boxing match is like a Marathon you have to know how to pace your self as a fighter I like the fight to be longer it take time to figure out some guys and it takes time to get comfortable in the fight. I say bring back the 15 rounds remember there was a time when there were 30 rounds how many people died then

Answer 4

I agree that having an odd amount of rounds for fights would make more sense from a scoring standpoint.  But with knockdowns and penalties making 10-8 rounds there could just as easily be a tie on the scorecards for a 15 round fight as well.  I dont think as a fighter you would necessarily want to know the score on the cards except for maybe in the last round or two.  The problem with knowing would be that if you found out you were behind early you may be more inclined to take stupid chances instead of working your gameplan.  Boxers are so good and so precise these days that it doesnt take much to give someone an opening that will make you pay.  I dont think that most fighers would want to know.  Like I say, maybe in the last round so that if your down you can go for the knockout, but that would be about it.  There's just too much else that you need to be concentrating on in the ring.

Answer 5

First answer was correct after Mancini killed that Korean, studies showed a lot of serious injuries in round 13 thru 15.

The big problem with fighters knowing the score, if a guy knows he is 3 points ahead going into the last round or two of a good competitive fight, a lot of them would just run and clinch, making the fight boring, not a real good idea.

Answer 6

the WBC were the first to shorten their title fights to 12 rounds after the death of duk koo kim in a WBA  lightweight challenge of ray 'boom boom' mancini.

the WBA and IBF followed suit in '87/'88, probably because mike tyson unified the belts and was the biggest thing in the sport at the time.....the WBO started up in late '88 with 12 rounders.

it has also been suggested that the tv networks has a big influrence on the decision so they could show title fights in their 1 hour slot......if that's the case, then the fact that tv networks rearly ever show title fights means that they probably could bring back 15 rounders if there would'nt be so much opposition to it......and you're correct in that there are too many draws, so a compromise would be to make title fights 13 rounders.

as far as boxers knowing the actual score in  a fight, i think they did that on some occations, but to the fans, it makes it much more exiting not knowing the scores 'till the end of the fight.