BoxRec

I'm curious. I notice in certain Australian boxing records that some contests are listed for 2min rounds and some aren't. For instance, a card held in Sydney in 1932 has all bouts with rounds of 2min duration, but in the newspaper reports of the day no mention is made of this. What was the rule, if any, regulating length of rounds?

Cap wrote:I'm curious. I notice in certain Australian boxing records that some contests are listed for 2min rounds and some aren't. For instance, a card held in Sydney in 1932 has all bouts with rounds of 2min duration, but in the newspaper reports of the day no mention is made of this. What was the rule, if any, regulating length of rounds?

Excellent question and I dare say one it will be hard to find a definitive answer for.

2 minute rounds seem to have been the norm in amateur boxing in Australia for a long time, if not forever.

3 minute rounds are far and away the most common in professional boxing. Particularly for longer duration fights. However, novice professional fights were, and I think occasionally still are, held over 3 x 2 minute rounds, and perhaps even less occasionally 4 x 2 minute rounds.

Managed to find this relative to 3 minute rounds :

5 x 3 Minute Rounds introduced in 1867
20 x 3 Minute Rounds introduced in the early 1900s
15 x 3 Minute Rounds introduced around 1940
12 x 3 Minute Rounds introduced in the late 1980s.

Looking around for further information it appears 2 minute rounds might be something at least somewhat unique to Australia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing

see in particular from that link the section headed Professional boxing[edit] Main article: Professional boxing

Any idea when 3min rounds became the norm in Oz then?

Cap wrote:Any idea when 3min rounds became the norm in Oz then?

Having searched around I can say quite confidently that it is a question that is going to be very difficult to find an definitive answer for.

My guess is as soon as rounds were used to punctuate fights that they were of 3 minutes duration. Both in Australia and elsewhere.

The anomaly in Australia seems to be that we also embraced the concept of 2 minute rounds for novice professional bouts.

IMO, John Hogg is one of the most astute Australian boxing historian there is. He'll no doubt be able to tell me without diving for any publication.
Stay tuned

BTW, Hoggy is now Qld's Hall of Fame member & no doubt will be Australian next year...and so deserved

Let me know what you hear. I had always assumed it was like Canada with 3min rounds for professionals. Based on Boxrec records it seems some were 2min and some were 3min. How can you prepare a guy for international competition if he only fights 2min rounds? Australia produced some really entertaining fighters back in the day [still do].

AntonS wrote:IMO, John Hogg is one of the most astute Australian boxing historian there is. He'll no doubt be able to tell me without diving for any publication.
Stay tuned

BTW, Hoggy is now Qld's Hall of Fame member & no doubt will be Australian next year...and so deserved

Have you had a chance to hit Hoggy up for an answer on the burning question yet?

Nothing on this yet?