Equality and Hot Topics In The Sport of Boxing

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

Equality and Hot Topics

It takes a lot for a boxer to give up a world title. This should not be minimized into some fit of pique. There have been plenty of examples of fighters who dislike intensely the bodies for whom they box for titles and pay for the privilege to do so. It is an odd system.

The IBO, WBC, WBA, WBO and the IBF have managed to get professional boxers to put their lives on the line to wear a belt that glorifies them whilst also charging them to do so. Whilst I may not be aware of the exact costs of these fees, I still struggle a great deal with the principal involved. Why? Because of the status that these bodies hold over the sport.

I have little doubt that in other sports you need to pay a fee to the governing body, but it will be to THE governing body so that the referees, the judges, the officials get paid, and the venues get hired and the publicity gets sorted and so on. I am sure that at events like Wimbledon or the US Open in golf, or tennis that the events are managed by those who ask for the cash to support them. But they then run the events, as in take the money and hold onto the cash receipts at the entrances. They sell the sponsorships and then keep the cash to support the sport.

What happens is that the sport sells the sport, mostly benefitting the sport. There are some obvious exceptions.

But I do not hear of promoters who sit apart from the governing bodies.

Unlike those sports, boxing appears to have sold their souls.

But for the most part it has worked out. Would the governing body have delivered us Rumble in the Jungle without the razzmatazz of Don King?

But watching Riddick Bowe dump his WBC belt in the trash or hear of Tyson Fury unwilling to defend an IBF title after what they have sacrificed to get it, is at least newsworthy.

Then we get Amanda Serrano.

She has vacated her WBC world title because the WBC will not sanction 3-minute rounds for women. Serrano claims that is the epitome of inequality and whilst the IBF, WBA and WBO sanctioned her recent defense of her titles, the WBC are steadfastly refusing to condone the move to 3-minute rounds for female competitors. Now Bowe dumped his belt because of the influence of a manager whilst Fury was rightly furious that after beating Wladimir Klitschko for all the belts the IBF demanded he fight their mandatory. When he refused, they stripped him.
Serrano has a much better reason that both of the previous two put together! It is, for her, a matter of principle.

She is not alone.

Claressa Shields wants 3-minute rounds because it would advance the argument for equal pay. Alycia Baumgardner agrees and sees it as an equality statement which would also lead to more excitement and possibly more knockouts, thus making the fights more exciting.
But there are obstacles, and not every woman agrees. Katie Taylor for one has been reported as being highly cautious and there is a clear belief that this is because she has honed her technique to 2- minute flurries.

But the WBC believes that science and their doctors should hold sway. They are unwilling to accept that the case for 3-minute rounds have been made. I, to an extent, agree. I have written about this before and continue to think that there is not enough depth in the women’s game to allow 3-minute rounds at every level. But there needs to be equity – the women boxers need to be given equal access to airtime, equal opportunity on bills and the chance to show their skills as the sport grows. And it will. Until then making the case for 12 3-minute rounds in the elite game is compelling, whilst lower down the rankings, the reason for retaining 2-minute rounds is equally compelling. Once boxers have managed to get a few professional fights under their belts they are ready to move on and make championship level fights. Until then the two-minute dashes to the bell are exciting and are building the sport, but change must always be a debate and always on the horizon. It will take time for mid-range fighters to earn the same as men but once there, they have a presence which deserves equality and equity in equal measure.

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