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I was thinking, one of the big complaints about boxing at the moment is that the officials are so preoccupied in protecting the safety of fighters so as to avoid adding to the growing list of tragic boxing stories that they are stopping the fight when it seems to everyone else like the fighter could continue. I dont blame anyone, its easy to do when someone is taking punishment, but surely there is a solution to this? If referees were so trigger-happy in the old days its unlikely that we'd have seen many of the great fights, comebacks and legend-making performances.
What I was thinking was for more standing-8-counts for non-knockdowns when a fighter is taking punishment to see if he is still with it and allowing him to continue if he is rather than just immediately waving off the fight. You rarely see it in professional boxing that a fighter is given an 8 count without going down. Invariably the referee just calls off the fight while the defeated boxer is complaining about being fine to go on. Of course, if you go down and dont make the 10 count, then thats pretty decisive, but so many fights seem to be called short these days.
What I was thinking was for more standing-8-counts for non-knockdowns when a fighter is taking punishment to see if he is still with it and allowing him to continue if he is rather than just immediately waving off the fight. You rarely see it in professional boxing that a fighter is given an 8 count without going down. Invariably the referee just calls off the fight while the defeated boxer is complaining about being fine to go on. Of course, if you go down and dont make the 10 count, then thats pretty decisive, but so many fights seem to be called short these days.
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