The amateur boxing review (Amateur Boxing)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Amateur Boxing
Date:	19/12/07 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: safety, can be done for fitness

Disadvantages: No money pumped into it

Thank you Frankie Gavin, for you are the reason this topic has been brought to my attention, and thus the readers are getting to read this article. Boxing like most sports is spilt into 2 "ranks" the professional and amateur ranks, in most sports with this sort of a split we see the professionals, the ones earning the masses of money, as being far superiour than than their amateur counterparts. In boxing this isn't always the case mainly due to sports not actually being the same sport, just 2 very similar ones which often atheletes may go from amateur to professional.
Where as in say football an amateur match is still 90 mins long, a corner is a corner and the huge skill differentials of your lower league players from say Ebbsfleet (now of course the multi-owned team dubbed "Webbsfleet") compared with your Rooney's, Messi's Ronaldo's at the top of the game. Darts is the same, the very top players like Raymond Van Barnevald and Phil "The Power" Taylor all play the same rules as the people in The Castle, around the corner who, may never hit a 180 in their life, it's merely the skills that seperate the top from the bottom.

In boxing the rules are different between the two, and being a top amateur when your really young doesn't mean your going to be the next Sugar Ray Robinson or Sugary Ray Leonard (both of whom were very good amateurs, with Leonard winning an Olympic gold medal). In amateur boxing, a top is worn matching the shorts (so you could be the red guy fight the blue guy, or vice versa), a helmet and different types as gloves, are just the obvious differences. Of course the fights last 4 rounds of 3 mins usually in the amateur game as opposed to the varying lengths of professional fights that vary from "4 2's" (4 rounds of 2 mins), 4X3's, 8X3's, 10X3's and 12X3's, but thats not the biggest difference. The biggest difference is the scoring of fights, which in the professional version of the sport you use what is called "the 10 points must system" (their are still times where this isnt used, but so rare I'd have to find an atlas of boxing to find examples), in the amateur version points are scored for specific punches (with ring side judges scoring them electronically). Despite both systems being vastly different, neither is perfect as such, with both open to interpretation, and even a blink and you miss it punch may not be registered, which leaves both systems open to fraudulent scoring.

So now we know the differences between the sports rules, we'll have to ask ourselves about any other differences, well for fans of both sports theirs one very drastic differences, in professional boxing, you have a boxer who is promoted by a promoter (such as Frank Warren in the UK, or Don King and Bob Arum in America to name 3 famous ones) who arranges a boxers fights. With a new guy coming into the professional ranks they might fight 5+ times a year in the modern era where as battle hardened and experienced fighter may only fight 2 or 3 times a year (a promoter wants the most money they can make from their investments, so the fewer fights, the higher demand to see them, and less liklyness for them to be hurt). Also a promoter may pick opponents for their guys that are deemed hand picked (such Peter Manfredo was for Joe Calzaghe) or opponents that may make the promoter the most money (Oscar De La Hoya's Goldenboy Promotions promoted both of "Pretty boy" Floyd Mayweathers fights this year, for well over $100,000,000).
Where as in the amateur ranks a fighter needs to fight maybe 4 or more times in a single tournement to get to the final, and these fights may all be inside a week, against other such qualifiers not hand picked opponents so a fighter cannot be protected in the same way. With fighters at say the Olympics and world championships often becoming pro's (although Cuba's often dominant Oympic boxers haven't always been able to turn pro such as the great Felix Savon and Mario Kindelan, due to Fidel Castro), it's not a given that even the outstanding athletes will make anything of themselves. Of course fighters like Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya have all gone on to amazing things after winning gold medals at summer Olympics, the likes of Howard Davis and Audley Harrison have failed to make anything of their undoubted talent. This could be due to the differences between the two sports, or just because their style was so stuck in the amateur's that they were never able to adapt to the professional sport.

Another differences between the two is the safety aspect, and despite fighting many more fights as an amateur (Donald Curry had somewhere in the region of 400+ fights there) their has only been 12 deaths due to the sport unlike the many in pro boxing over the years (not saying the pro sport is dangerous, as theirs something like 1.2 deaths per every 100,000 fighters), which would suggest the sports safety record is untouchable.
Also the sport is often seen as a good form of self defence, as it teaches you not only the technique of his to throw a punch but also how to protect from punches and discipline which could be used to help people look after themselves, and get fit, as it's often taught at gyms. None competition boxing such as what you may do in a gym to keep/get fit, will not only help you to look after yourself, lose weight but will vastly improve your cardio, which is never a bad thing really, though you will get hit and perhaps bruised up a bit if you don't take it seriously. The advantages of doing this though, are like with learning combat sport, fun, compeititive, a way to make friends and a way to get fit, without needing any special equipment as such (you can always shadow box in an empty room when away from the gym which will only require a sparring partner, a heavy bag and a speed ball).

In summary, a good way to get into boxing, to get fit, and to learn to protect yourself.

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