you guys ever heard of the Italian "extra time rounds?"

[Guest]

I know this is probably more global boxing, but I put this one in here for interest.

To be honest, I'd never heard of it before, but when a bout takes place in Italy against a foreign fighter, the country is apparently notorious for having extra-long rounds when the home fighter is doing well.

I only heard about this because when Johnny Nelson defended his WBO Cruiserweight belt over there a couple of weeks back he was winning pretty handily, and admitted himself he was "cruising" (no pun intended) through it.

However, on one of the rounds he get tagged by a body shot that momentarily winded him... when the reports of the fight came out the round was timed at around four-and-a-half minutes!

[Hitman932]

i believe it, wouldnt know first hand about it.. however what ive seen a lot of lately in boxing that is somewhat disturbing to me is this.... ive seen several fights where a guy was hurt or cut and the ref called time however the clock operator never stops the time and the round ends up getting shortened to the benfit of the hurt fighter. not saying that this is done purposely but just another example of how a fight outcome can be influenced by poor job performance by a ref and/or timekeeper.