•Another highlight of the proposals is the deduction of points resulting from an infringement.
•The pugilists will now have to forego two points for each public warning.
The world boxing governing body, AIBA, is set to ring some drastic changes in the rules of the game if some far-reaching proposals by member states see the light of the day.
Boxing Federation of Kenya communications director, Duncan 'Sugar Ray' Kuria brought the plans to public light on Monday during an exclusive interview with the Star, saying a congress to brainstorm the proposals had been set for December 12 and 13.
Kuria said the proposals were meant to plug the glaring loopholes hitherto witnessed in the game.
For instance, if the proposals sail through, judges will be required to score each minute of the round, quite a departure from the past practice where scores were awarded at the end of the three minutes.
“Usually, the winner is declared at the end of each bout but this is set to change. At the end of every minute, the judges will be pressing the buzzer to announce the winner,” said Kuria.
“The winner will be declared after every single minute of the three three-minute bouts,” he added.
Amateur bouts are normally three rounds in duration, lasting three minutes each.
Only two scoring criteria will apply, that is; quality blows on the target area as well as dominance through technical and tactical superiority.
Event organisers will also be required to refer to scores by all five judges to determine the ultimate winner. Initially, only scores from three judges were used to decide the results.
“At the moment, scorecards from only three judges out of the five are picked to determine the bout's winner. But if the proposals are adopted all the five judges will decide the winner,” said Kuria.
“There were some glaring challenges that emerged during the 2016 Rio Olympics where the judges said the winners would have been entirely different if the results would have been decided based on the scorecards of all the five judges,” explained Kuria.
Another highlight of the proposals is the deduction of points resulting from an infringement. The pugilists will now have to forego two points for each public warning.
“Initially, every public warning due to an infringement meant losing a point. However, if the new proposals pass, every infringement will cost the boxer two points,” said Kuria.
Kuria said a new name for the world boxing body will also be discussed.
“AIBA has been bedeviled by numerous scandals that have blotted its name and therefore the need to have the name changed.
“There is also an argument that the first initial in the abbreviation stands for amateur. We are proposing IBA to stand for International Boxing Asssociaton,” said Kuria.