Fist fighting is natural. However, when it comes to professional fist-fighting which boxing, there are certain rules that have to be followed. Failure to follow these rules could lead to loss of points, penalties or even disqualification. No boxer would want that. This article focuses on some of the rules applied to the equipment and scoring for professional bouts today.
Equipment
Boxers fight in a square ring that is raised from the ground which is 16 to 25 feet on each side. They wear boxing gloves on their fists to protect their hands and the opponent once they are punched. Gloves have been used in boxing for centuries although there is evidence of fighters boxing with bare hands.
There have been arguments against boxing gloves. Some people argue that while they protect hands, they make the punches more damaging and have led to brain injuries. Boxers are also allowed to use mouth guards to protect their teeth and jaws from punches. They are not allowed to wear tops.
Scoring Decision
There are several ways of deciding a bout. Some are outright while others are subjective. For instance, knockouts and disqualifications are outright wins while judges use subjective methods to decide the winner. In professional fights, the scoring is done by three ringside judges. They use subjective methods to make a decision on which fighter won the bout in each round.
Most fights are stopped at 12 rounds if there is no knockout and the decision is made by the judges based on those 12 rounds. A unanimous decision is reached if all the three judges agree while a split decision is reached if one of them differs from the rest. A bout is a draw if one judge marks the fight level and the other two are divided and vice versa.