Continuing with the glossary, we need to know a little bit of the history of the sport. The first boxing championships were arranged in 1867 taking place under Queensberry rules. Later, in 1880, the governing body of the sport ABA was formed in Britain. In the first place, during the 16th to 19th century, the sport was motivated by money. The fighters competed for money prizes and promoters controlled the gate while spectators were betting on the result among themselves. Fortunately, nowadays, boxers, whether amateurs or professional, are treated like athletes instead of gladiators and top Asian and European bookmakers make sure that all bets are carried legally.

 

Amateur and Professional Boxing

Amateur boxing measures the number of clean blows landed instead of physical damage according to a point scoring system. In Olympic and Commonwealth Games, amateur boxing bouts includes three rounds of three minutes with a one-minute interval between rounds. Each boxer wears protective headgear and gloves with a strip across the knuckle because they make it easier for judges to score clean hits. However, these are not required in any case. Instead, any solid color may be worn. The gloves might vary related to the fighter’s weight.

When it comes to scoring, a punch is considered a point only when the boxers connect with the white portion of the gloves. If the punch lands cleanly on the heart or torso, then it is counted as a point. The referee monitors if the fighters use only legal blows. Each competitor wears a belt worn over the torso to indicate the limit of punches. Any boxer hit repeatedly lower than the belt is disqualified. One of the duties of the referee is to ensure that the boxers don’t use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from swinging. Repeated holding can result in a penalty or disqualification. Also, the referee has to stop the match if one of the rivals is injured seriously or one of them is dramatically dominating the ring.

Professional bouts are usually much longer than amateur ones, typically ranging from ten to twelve rounds, though four-round fights are common for less experienced fighters or club fighters. Also, in Australia and some other countries, there are some two-and-three-round professional matches. In the 1900s, the fights were happening without any round limit. The bouts ended only when one fighter quit. It has been changed when the death of Kim Duk-Koo finally prompted the World Boxing Council and other organizations sanctioning professional boxing to reduce the limit to twelve rounds.

In professional bouts, headgear is not allowed and instead, boxers are generally permitted to take damage before a fight is halted. The referee can stop the fight if any injury case happens. Also, if a fighter punches that cause a cut, the referee can stop the match. In both cases, it’s counted as a technical knockout win for the opponent. For the cuts, each fighter has their cut-men to treat cuts between rounds. Thus, the boxer can continue despite the cut. Also, if a boxer quits the match or his corner stops the fight, it will result in a technical knockout victory for the opponent. Furthermore, unlike amateur boxing, professional male boxers must be bare-chested.

 

Boxing Leagues

Boxing has various belts to compete for. There are four main governing bodies for boxing instead of one and each of them has its own respective belts. They rarely work together, though, as they usually compete with each other. This makes it difficult for boxers to obtain multiple belts. Based on the weight classes, each governing body has numerous boxing divisions. Also, since there are four different organizations, there can be four different title holders all at once. Here is the governing body list:

• World Boxing Council
• World Boxing Association
• International Boxing Federation
• World Boxing Organization

 

Weight Divisions

In the late 1900s and early 2000s, the popularity of boxing increased and that led to the formation of weight divisions. Thus, they eliminate the need for smaller competitors to overeat their rivals.

Men’s boxing traditionally had eight weight divisions. More divisions were added later. Professional governing bodies now recognize a total of 17 weight classes and currently, names of those were set by major boxing organizations in 2015. The weight divisions of the classes are listed below:

• Minimum weight, 48 kg
• Light flyweight, 49 kg
• Flyweight, 51 kg
• Super flyweight, 52 kg
• Super bantamweight, 55 kg
• Featherweight, 57 kg
• Bantamweight, 53.5 kg
• Super featherweight, 59 kg
• Lightweight, 61 kg
• Welterweight, 67 kg
• Super lightweight, 63.5 kg
• Super welterweight, 70 kg
• Middleweight, 72.5 kg
• Super middleweight, 76 kg
• Light heavyweight, 79 kg
• Cruiserweight, 91 kg
• Heavyweight, unlimited

There is no universal agreement on weight divisions in women’s professional boxing. However, amateur weight divisions are listed below:

• Flyweight, not more than 48 kg
• Bantamweight, 51 kg
• Featherweight, 54 kg
• Lightweight, 57 kg
• Light welterweight, 60 kg
• Welterweight, 64 kg
• Middleweight, 69 kg
• Light heavyweight, 75 kg
• Heavyweight, 81 kg
• Super heavyweight, over 81 kg

When it comes to Women’s Olympic boxing, it’s restricted to just three classes:

• Flyweight, 48 to 51 kg
• Lightweight, 56 to 60 kg
• Middleweight, 69 to 75 kg

Now that you know more about the boxing, the only remaining thing to do is to watch the matches. In that regard, streaming technology has made it easier to access both amateur and professional fights. Also, once you have internalized the knowledge, register for a betting account with broker and check out the offers from the best betting agent, the right address for online sports betting.