How Many Rounds Does It Take

The World Boxing Council congratulates the OPBF ( Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation ) which was founded in 1954 , as they have now adopted the WBC recommendation to reduce their federation championship fights to 10 rounds instead of 12.

The WBC has been the leader in safety implementations throughout the history of our sport. After important research performed at UCLA in the late 70´s, which revealed information from which Jose Sulaiman and his colleagues created a simple formula

DEHIDRATION + FATIGUE + POWER PUNCH TO THE HEAD = POTENTIAL SERIOUS INJURY

This led the WBC in 1963 to reduce the number of rounds from 15 to 12 rounds for all world championship fights.

There have been many other changes in rules and procedures as well as the creation of new ones with the sole intention to make boxing safer for the fighters.

The WBC Board of Governors ruled in 2019 to reduce all WBC affiliatted and regional title fights to 10 rounds, keeping only world championship fights at 12 rounds.

The ruling also states that some regional titles can be scheduled even scheduled for 8 rounds.

The WBC mismatch prevention committee, led by Dean Louhis, has reported that less experienced fighters can be in danger when they are competing in additional rounds for the first time. For example, a fighter who has never fought more than 6 rounds would be in unnecessary danger if he or she competes in a scheduled 10-or 12-round bout for the first time.

Fighters, generally, are willing to do whatever it takes to win a bout and advance their career. As a result, they could be in unnecessary danger if restrictions such as this are not put in place.

It is the duty of boxing’s chief stewards and administrators to protect the fighters and set rules that allow for maximum protection.