World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman has announced that following the recommendation of its Medical Committee, the duration of all affiliated championship fights will now be ten rounds instead of twelve, and this is for the safety of fighters who`s well being must come first.
World Championship and Silver Championship bouts will remain at twelve rounds. But the Committee has furthermore recommended that Regional Championships be fought over eight rounds.
Mauricio explains: “It is a fact that fighters are being moved up very quickly from four rounders, and if they are good prospects up to eight, ten and twelve rounds. And this can be dangerous. If you run a marathon it`s forty two kilometers. And you have to train yourself to run this distance. You have to run five, ten, fifteen twenty and more before you do the event. In boxing, you cannot immediately go from four rounds to twelve rounds. This is very dangerous.”
So how will the boxers themselves receive this news? Mauricio replies: “They will welcome it eventually. We have to protect them. They are warriors, who are prepared to do whatever it takes. They would fight fifteen, twenty or even fifty rounds. So it`s the WBC`s duty to implement rules to protect boxers. This is a safety matter and it`ll protect many of the young fighters, who are moving up into the championship rounds.”
It`s been thirty eight years since Jose Sulaiman declared that championship fights would be shortened in duration from fifteen rounds to twelve rounds. The duration of three minutes rounds for men boxers remains unaltered. Women boxers fight for two minutes per round.
