Amateur Boxing

Amateur boxing is a popular form of boxing that may be found at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. It is known as the cleaner form of boxing because it has a point scoring system that measures the number of clean blows landed instead of blows that do the most damage. In the Olympic and Commonwealth Games each “Bout” consists of three rounds three minutes with a minute interval in between. The Amateur Boxing Association “Bouts” consist of three rounds of two minutes also with a minute interval in between each round. Each competitor wears protective headgear and gloves with a white strip across the knuckles. The head gear is worn to avoid damage to the face and head. They also have to wear a sleeveless T-Shirt along with a simple pair of shorts. Each punch that connects with the white portion of the glove is considered a point. As well as each punch that land cleanly on the head or torso. Each competitor wears a belt around their torso that indicates the lower limit of punches. Any boxer that lands blows repeatedly below the belt is automatically disqualified. Like professional boxing, a referee watches for the “below the belt,” or “low blow” punches during the competition. They also monitor the fight to make sure the boxers don’t use holding tactics and only use legal punches. If a boxer puts their competitor in a hold they are ordered by the referee to let go and continue boxing immediately.

If they continue to attempt the hold they are penalized or even disqualified. When a boxer is seriously injured or when a boxer is getting over dominated by his opponent a referee will stop the bout. Amateur bouts which end this way may be noted as “Referee stopped contest” (RSC), or “Referee stopped contest with notations for an outclassed opponent” (RSCO). They can also call “Referee stopped contest outscored opponent” (RSCOS), injury (RSCI) or head injury (RSCH). A Referee reports to a Judge that ultimately determines the winner of the match based on the rules of the game and he is not allowed to converse with the boxers or coaches before or during the match. They are also not allowed to leave their seat until the results of the game or round is announced to the public. Each of the 5 Judges is designated to a specific location of the ring that is separate from the public and adjacent to the ring. Two of the judges are seated on the same side of the ring at a significant distance from one another. The other three judges are seated at the center of one of the three sides of the ring. Each match is closely monitored and insures a clean safe fight for the viewers as well as the boxers.