BoxRec

I was reading the Olympic report in Boxing Monthly about how the amatuer boxing rules have been changed so much that it's hardly boxing anymore and not an enjoyable spectator sport it made me wonder what would need to be changed to remedy the problem.

I don't know what amateur boxing was like before the introduction headguards. Can someone enlighten me to what it was like and how it compared to am boxing today.
But seems that most of the ways to 'fix' amateur boxing would be to virtually turn it into pro boxing without the money but it surely should stay a seperate discipline?

I think the throwing out the computerised scoring in favour of accountable judges and getting rid of open scoring would be a good start but other than not scoring Knockdown* i'm not sure what else you could do to keep it different but still entertaining.

*This is for the reason i think you should be training kids to outbox their opponents as a priority before knocking them down/out. The thin old plasticky headguards should stay too as little Timmy getting a nasty brow cut just looks bad adn can be easily avoided.

Amateur boxing was pretty much how you would imagine it given your suggestions for change. In general, it had a more pro style approach fought at a higher pace with more movement than the pros but with more two handed exchanges than the amateur code today.

Bouts in the ‘open class’ ie. senior boxers 17+ years old of ABA championship standard upwards, boxed over 3x3 min rounds. There were 3 judges (5 in International tournaments) each accountable for their own interpretation of a contest. The points system was on a 20 point must system for each round. Just to illustrate the point if a boxer won a round he would be awarded it 20-19. If he won every round and all 3 judges are in agreement the scores would come back 60-57, 60-57 and 60-57 – which of course would be deemed a clear decision. I’m sure you can fill in all the other permutations and judges varying interpretations.

As you suggest, the computerised open scoring has been the single most important change and has ruined the amateurs IMO. The scoring should not be open and apart from the inability of the judges to count every punch in an exchange and the lack of counting clean body shots as point scoring punches, the system is fundamentally flawed. It is hypothetically possible for a boxer, under this system, to win 1 round out of 4 and still win the fight. That can not be right IMO.

So what we have seen over the years since its introduction are trainers and their boxers adapting to the system. This entails much more tentative cat and mouse 'fencing' looking to land single clean counter punches and then moving way out of range. The system and the adaptation to it has taken away a lot of the natural ebb and flow that you expect from the sport.

Boxing IMO is much more dynamic than the martial arts like judo and tae kwon do which have similar open points scoring systems.