Why did WBC reduce title fights to 12 rounds ?

[OCPancho]

Give me the real reason.

Hint, it had nothing to do with the Boom Boom Mancini vs Deuk Koo Kim tragedy.

[Gentblue]

Because too appease networks..... but if that was the case why didn’t the WBA and IBF follow suit?

[OCPancho]

Roone Arledge , the creator of Monday Night Football, complained the Homes-Cobb went too long. It went over an hour. He had to pay the local affiliates for the time that went over an hour.
So, he went to Jose Sulaiman and told him to reduce the title fights to 12 rounds.

WBA and IBF ( USBAI then ), did not follow right away b/c they held their ground.

WBC kept claiming they did it for safety reasons.
WBA and IBF finally caved-in.

[The Old LefHook]

Crooked, fat as*ed Jose Suiliman.

[Dempsey-Louis]

I always felt it was really about TV scheduling.

A 12 round fight fits nicely into a one hour time slot. 24 minutes of fighting, 11 minutes of rest time equals 35 minutes total for the fight. This leaves 12 1/2 minutes going in for commercials and introductions and 12 1/2 minutes getting out for commercials and closing remarks.

15 rounds is too long for a one hour time slot and too short for a 90 minute slot.

Me thinks 15 rounds was inconvenient for commercial television.

Oh! . . . and then there is that pretense that the WBC cares about the health of prize fighters.

[OCPancho]

Crooked, fat as*ed Jose Suiliman.

Fkkr was surely crooked.
Became a WBC dictator and president for freaking life.
The president of WBC had a two-term limit.
Now his son is the president.
Interestingly, Jose was actually not a native Mexican. His family came from Lebanon. He was once caught trying to smuggle Mexican relics to the US. His freaking excuse was he was trying to preserve the history of his people. lol

The 12-rd schedule did not save Kiko Bejines. Sulaiman took some grease money and gave Kiko a title shot against Albert Davilla. The bantam belt was vacated by Lupe Pintor. Kiko lost his last fight by TKO a year before.
Yet, he got a title shot .
He was TKO'd in the 12 rd and died days later.

The same Jose Sulaiman approved the Pac-Margarito catchweight title fight for the vacant jr middle belt . Neither one deserved the title shot.
Months later, Canelo and Hatton fought in yet again a catchweight fight for a freaking vacant title.

[OCPancho]

I always felt it was really about TV scheduling.

A 12 round fight fits nicely into a one hour time slot. 24 minutes of fighting, 11 minutes of rest time equals 35 minutes total for the fight. This leaves 12 1/2 minutes going in for commercials and introductions and 12 1/2 minutes getting out for commercials and closing remarks.

15 rounds is too long for a one hour time slot and too short for a 90 minute slot.

Me thinks 15 rounds was inconvenient for commercial television.

Oh! . . . and then there is that pretense that the WBC cares about the health of prize fighters.

36 minutes of fighting plus 11 minutes of round breaks.
Throw in the Mexican national anthem, you have an hour. lol
Or the Panamian national anthem. The joke was, " What's longer than the Panama Canal ? Answer, their national anthem."

[Dempsey-Louis]

36 minutes of fighting plus 11 minutes of round breaks.
Throw in the Mexican national anthem, you have an hour. lol
Or the Panamian national anthem. The joke was, " What's longer than the Panama Canal ? Answer, their national anthem."

My math was terrible sorry!!

I still want to stand by my point, if you do the math (when you're not high) it still works out better for TV.

LOL -- people don't realize how unbearably long it is . . .

only for Chavez did I ever hear the full version. The lesser Mexican fighters are usually forced to suffer an abridge version.

I suspect Cano now can demand the un-truncated anthem. I hope he does. When it keeps restarting itself it borders on the absurd.

[OCPancho]

My math was terrible sorry!!

I still want to stand by my point, if you do the math (when you're not high) it still works out better for TV.

LOL -- people don't realize how unbearably long it is . . .

only for Chavez did I ever hear the full version. The lesser Mexican fighters are usually forced to suffer an abridge version.

I suspect Cano now can demand the un-truncated anthem. I hope he does. When it keeps restarting itself it borders on the absurd.

Think about the 15 round classics that would have been different had they were 12 rounders.
Billy Conn would have beat Louis.
Walcott would have beat Marciano.
Thomas Hearns would have beat Leonard ( I ).

I think they should have went to 13 rounders for world title fights instead.
Keep the regional belts at 12 rds.

[Dempsey-Louis]

Think about the 15 round classics that would have been different had they were 12 rounders.
Billy Conn would have beat Louis.
Walcott would have beat Marciano.
Thomas Hearns would have beat Leonard ( I ).

I think they should have went to 13 rounders for world title fights instead.
Keep the regional belts at 12 rds.

I like the 13 round idea . . add Mancini beats Bramble (I); and had Rosario-Camacho been schedule for 15, Rosario would have stopped Camacho.

The most dramatic one though is Marciano. We would never have heard of him. Louis would have taken back the title from Conn in a rematch. Leonard would have gotten a rematch as well; Marciano wouldn't have.