Olympic
boxers will fight without head guards in a pro-style scoring system starting
this year after several significant rule changes by the sport's international
governing body.
The International Boxing
Association (AIBA) unveiled several rule amendments this week, but the two
biggest changes will move the amateur sport much closer to the professional
version. The rejection of headgear and the introduction of 10-point scoring
could make the sport once known as amateur boxing more appealing to young
boxers seeking professional careers.
Male boxers at the world
championships in October and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 won't wear the
protective head guards adopted before the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Although the
move might seem counterintuitive in preventing brain injuries, the chairman of
AIBA's medical commission, Charles Butler, cites numerous medical studies that
suggest fighting without head guards will decrease concussions.
"There's no evidence
protective gear shows a reduction in incidence of concussion," Butler
said. "In 1982, when the American Medical Association moved to ban boxing,
everybody panicked and put headgear on the boxers, but nobody ever looked to
see what the headgear did."
AIBA's executive committee
unanimously voted to add head guards to amateur competition in April 1984, and
they stayed in place through eight straight Olympics.
But the headgear has long been
criticized for diffusing the impact of a blow and allowing fighters to continue
sustaining more head shots for a longer stretch of time. The gear also offers
no protection to the chin, where many knockout blows land in boxing, while the
bulky sides of the device impede fighters' peripheral vision, preventing them
from seeing every head blow.
The head guard ban will only
affect male boxers at the top levels of AIBA competition, meaning women's
boxers and younger fighters will still wear the gear.
The amateur sport also is
moving to a pro-style, 10-point scoring system, discarding the latest version
of the much-criticized computer punch-count systems implemented after the Seoul
Olympics in 1988. Each fight will be scored by five ringside judges with the
traditional 10-9 or 10-8 rounds familiar to fans of professional boxing.
The sport moved to a
punch-counting system after the infamously bizarre results in Seoul, including
Roy Jones Jr.'s inexplicable loss. But the computer system has been highly
subjective and arcane, often turning the sport into a sparring session that
emphasizes punch volume over technique and ring generalship. North American
boxers have been particularly critical of the computerized scoring, with many
top U.S. and Mexican prospects declining even to participate in amateur boxing.
The traditional scoring system
also should indirectly improve fighters' safety, according to Butler. Since
body shots and combinations notoriously scored few points in the computerized
punch-count system, fighters have long placed a premium on a high volume of
head shots, since an opponent's neck snapping back is the surest way to make
sure a punch is seen and counted.
"Boxing isn't
bean-counting," Butler said. "The thing that makes (the computer
system) dangerous is if you're a boxer, you know you're not going to get a
point for a body shot, so what are you going to do except punch the head? There
were no points given for combinations. You might get one point. If a kid was a
counterpuncher, you'd lose."
AIBA has been moving its sport
to a professional model for the past several years under the direction of
President Wu Ching-Kuo, even opening two professional boxing ventures: the
team-based World Series of Boxing and the individual APB Boxing, slated to
debut this fall. AIBA even dropped the word "amateur" from its name
and competitions to emphasize its desire to control boxing at every level.
"It is AIBA's duty to
bring the sport of boxing to the pinnacle of the Olympic Movement, and I am
convinced that these changes will critically contribute to the development of
our beloved sport," Wu said. "Decisions have not been made lightly,
and we will now put a lot of efforts in educating our national member
federations, our officials, boxers and coaches, as well as boxing fans around
the world."
