WBO junior lightweight world champion Mikaela Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs) and longtime IBF world champion Maiva Hamadouche (22-1, 18 KOs) faced off on Wednesday in advance of their title unification tilt this Friday at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. This will be the first time a female world title bout has headlined a Top Rank on ESPN card since the most recent incarnation of the series debuted in July 2017.
“This is terrific for women’s boxing,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “It’s great that the best women in any weight class are facing each other.
“If we want to bring women’s boxing to the forefront of the sport, we all should advocate for three-minute rounds. If women’s boxing wants to get into a prominent position that it hasn’t, but it should, in my opinion, it should be changed to three-minute rounds. Why is there a difference in rounds between women’s and men’s boxing?
“We have to look at other sports. The one that comes to mind immediately is the one where women’s participation is the same as men’s. In professional tennis, women play a game and it’s the same point-scoring as men. By keeping it at two-minute rounds, you are telling the world that women’s boxing is different. If we are worried about health issues, do three-minutes rounds and regulate the number of rounds that women can fight.”
Tennis is a bad example. In major championships Men play best out of 5 sets and women play only best out of three
Tennis is a bad example Bob. In big tournaments women play best of 3 sets, men play best of 5. In women’s mma and kickboxing, however, women and men are scheduled for the same length of fights.
I agree with Bob.
Hate to admit it, but I agree w/Bob also.
If anything, for sake of safety these guys should be arguing for men adopting 2 minute rounds, with 10- and 12-round bouts being replaced by 15-rounders. Not that I’m in favor of it, but if you’re going to argue for change? Argue for change in the name of safety.
– Respectfully disagree.
– Most boxing fatalities / brain injuries occur because of sustained punches to the head over 12 rounds.
– If the gloves were smaller, there would be more early KO’s, minimizing the head-jarring shots over the length of the fight.
– Take care.
Well, that’s why I’d advocate 2 minute rounds. It reduces the risk of sustained head trauma incurred during individual rounds while allowing for assessment between them. And 15 two-minute rounds at a championship level would be 30 minutes of boxing, versus 12 three-minute rounds at 36. Less overall damage.
What about Amanda Serrano?
I agree with Lucie. Tennis is actually the worst example. They play shorter matches than men.
I submited the same comment as Lucy and it was not published when there were Zero comments
– The editors must have heard you, as your comment is the first for this article.
– Take care.
Women’s championship tennis matches are 33% shorter than men’s, but they get equal pay. Are you going to give women equal pay for 66% of the work Bob?
That’s why men will always be superior to women.
How about zero minutes.
Zero minutes would appear to be the best option. LOL. Three minutes is a spectacularly bad idea as women don’t possess one punch power so have way more distance fights and will therefore pick up way more cumulative punishment to the head.
Maybe women should be baking not boxing lol
oh wait a sec for all of those even hinting at changing rules of boxing in the name of safety needs to just find another sport combat sports are just that combat Boxing changed from 15 rd world title fights to 12 rds Kickboxing went really drastic and went from 10-12 rd world title fights to 5 rd max and MMA is 5 rd 5 minute matches with the fastest stoppages of them all i agree though women should be treated the same 12×3 minute rounds
Physiologically, a woman’s skull is not as dense as ours and cannot handle the impact on a consistent basis. Adding more time per round will only increase the chance of injury.
Boxing should change rules. Mens boxing 9 rounds 4 minutes each for championships.