Understand more about Olympic boxing if you are a beginner

You can find a couple of Olympic sports that have the storied tradition that Olympic boxing has built up over the years.

Good boxers like Oscar de la Hoya, George Foreman and “The Greatest” himself, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) have fought and triumphed on the international stage of the Summer Olympics. Today, it lives on as one of the most popular and, in some cases, controversial Olympic sports. Regardless of whether you’ll be watching along with 13,000 other die-hard fans at the Worker’s Indoor Arena, or watching from the comfort of your own residential home, let’s get ready to box at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with this essential history and explanation of Olympic boxing. .

Surprisingly, the first modern Olympic Games did not feature boxing as the Olympic sport. The reason? It was considered too violent. Still, in 1904 boxing made its debut at the St. Louis Olympics, though only as a demonstration sport. In 1908, boxing was included as a medal sport in London, but once again, it was not part of the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, four years later. Finally, at the 1920 Olympics, boxing came back to stay (there had been no 1916 Olympics).

There has never been women’s boxing at the Olympics, although in 2012 there will be for the first time. Quite appropriately, London will host those Summer Olympics, considering that London was also the venue when boxing first appeared as a medal sport in 1908.

Olympic boxing stands out for several factors. For starters, you can basically find 3 bronze medals in Olympic boxing. Each loser within the 2 semi-final bouts receives a bronze medal. Also, the boxing tournament is single elimination 1, so there is certainly very little room for error, basically, there isn’t.

Some of the rules and recommendations of Olympic boxing are unique to those of professional boxing with which a wide selection of fans are also familiar. Olympic boxing separates competitors into twelve fat classes, ranging from light flyweight (about 106 pounds) to super heavyweight (over 200 pounds). Additionally, all competitors are developed to wear helmets, comparable to amateur boxing in the United States.

Various rules of Olympic boxing, particularly the scoring and evaluation system, have been controversial over the years. In Olympic boxing, points are earned by hitting the opponent in the head or torso, as long as it is a legal blow. The judges don’t actually grade the tips per round, giving ten points to the winner. Instead, they use an electronic scoring technique to best record a wide selection of shots.

Each time a hit is hit, the judge presses a button, and if 3 of the five judges do so, a point is recorded. Judges must also press the button within 1 second of each other. Still, if a flurry is exchanged, the judges are told to wait until it’s over, and then give a point to whoever they feel got the most of the exchange. As you can see, the evaluation is peculiar, to say the least.

At the end of the fight, if time is up and neither fighter has been defeated, points are added up anywhere to decide the winner. If the fight is truly a draw, the judges vote based on who they think won the bigger fight. However, you won’t find points awarded for a takedown, so a hit that results in a knocked down opponent isn’t much more useful than a jab that lands, if it doesn’t result in a knockout. As in most boxing matches, three knockdowns in a single round results in a TKO, although in the Olympics, four knockdowns in a full fight also results in exactly the same result.

The combination of these somewhat bizarre rules and the judges’ recommendations has led to a number of controversial decisions and frustration for fans and competitors alike. Yet Olympic boxing has remained one of the purest mediums for boxers to ply their trades, and it also remains one of the biggest likely tests for the world’s top amateur pugilists.