Boxing is a classic sport that has been around for many years. It became part of the Olympics in 1904. For all those years of history that it has, the sport has had its amazing moments. From breakout athletes like; Muhammad Ali, Canelo Alvarez, Alycia Baumgardner and Barbara Buttrick among others. To its wholesome moments, sportsmanship and respect. Unfortunately for every positive in the sport, it has also had its negatives.
Some of these guys in the top ten, top 20 aren’t good. Like some of them are bad. They just have money behind them.
Tanner Kimbark: co-owner of Boomerz Boxing and Head Coach
Boxing might be considered a noble sport, but not everyone who steps into that ring is a noble person. Let alone anyone who is involved in the business side of the discipline. Tanner Kimbark is a co-owner at Boomerz Boxing, he is also one of the head coaches of the boxing gym.
“Boxing today you can kind of buy your way into a ranking, so if you have money behind you, they’ll put you in fights against guys that might have good records, but those good records are all against these guys that are bad fighters, so they never fought anyone,” said Kimbark.
What Kimbark is referring to is also called stat padding or padding records. Where fighters fight against other fighters that they know they can beat. This helps them boost their record and stats which gives them a higher ranking. This in turn gives the fighters greater recognition which can attract bigger business and attention to their fights.
“You might fight a guy who’s 15-1. Then, but he’s never fought anyone. He’s a horrible fighter, so if I have money, I could put you. I could match you properly to fight this guy, even though he’s bad and you might be pretty good and now you fought a guy who’s 15-1, and that bumps your rating,” added Kimbark.
Kimbark also commented that there is an art to matchmaking and building someone’s record. Just to clarify matchmaking is not the same as match fixing. Matchmaking is the process of finding the correct fight for the fighter. Someone who won’t be too hard or too easy and will give the fighter a fair fight.
On the other hand, match fixing involves rigging fights to ensure a desired outcome or result from the fight. Like any other sport, boxing has its ugly side as well. Cheating and drug use is not uncommon in boxing as some fighters will do anything for an advantage.
“If someone’s on steroids and you’re not like it could be really hard on your body, and you’re trying to hurt each other. The goal of boxing is to each other, so when you’re in a sport like that, like there there can’t be any tolerance for cheating. You can’t. You can’t load your hand wraps. That’s insane,” said Kimbark.
One other thing that really affects boxing’s integrity is the referees and judges. The judging system in boxing is opinion based, on which boxer the judge thinks performed better. The referees also have their own opinions on which calls to make.
Malik Donaghy is an amateur boxer from Canada. He has experienced bias referees and judges before. Here is what he said when asked about what he would change about boxing.
“When it comes to reffing and judging. I find when someone gets robbed within a fight, it kind of deters people. It makes people frustrated where it’s like something like that is going to make it seem like it’s rigged and not real. At the end of the day, those refs are human like you and I, and bias could play a part, and nobody would ever know,” said Donaghy.
Future of Boxing
Donaghy had one more thing he’d like to change.
Boxing can still be changed for the better. With improvements in artificial intelligence. A future of the sport where referring is less bias and judges have the help of AI to make better decisions is possible.
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