By Chris Young: Almost 23 years ago ended an era when the last 15 round bout was fought. Jorge Paez defeated Calvin Grove for the IBF featherweight title on August 4, 1988. Championship rounds use to be between 13-15 rounds. A lot of our historic battles went to the championship rounds, like Holmes/Norton, Holyfield/Qawi I, and Duran/Leonard I. They gave it their all.
Inasmuch it was brutal battle of attrition, determination and heart, it was also beautiful, epic, and majestic. And in turn, subject their bodies to more punishment and possibly permanent damage. My personal opinion is that only championship fights should only be schedule to go 15 rounds with the referee paying close attention to both fighters. But I do understand why it discontinued.
After the tragedy of the Ray Mancini/Duk Koo Kim resulting the death of Kim taking excessive blows to the head over a period of 14 rounds. The major boxing organization reacted swiftly by changing 15 round bouts to 12….. Now going back in time what if certain fights from recent past could of gone 15 rounds. Fights like the first Jermain Taylor vs. Bernard Hopkins fight.
Would Taylor walked away with the undisputed middleweight title or would Hopkins successfully defend his title for the 21st time by via knockout? Towards the end of that fight B-Hop had Jermain badly hurt and he had nothing left in the gas tank. How about Glen Johnson vs. Chad Dawson?
What if that fight was scheduled for 15? There is a strong chance Glencoffe Johnson would of reclaimed the light-heavyweight title. Or the first Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez fight? Which way would that fight have gone if went the full 15? And the most recent fight, Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana? Amir should be thanking his lucky stars for being born in the right generation, because Maidana was on a mission and he was not taking any prisoners.
The list could go on. Without taking any credit away from the ones that benefited from the change in length of the bouts. What fights do you think if it were scheduled for the full 15 rounds, would of change on how history would be written?
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