About the Sport
Amateur boxing emerged as a sport towards the end of the 1800s. Bouts are shorter in duration than professional boxing bouts, and men’s rounds consist of three, three minute rounds with one-minute interval between rounds. Women’s rounds consist of four rounds of two minutes.
Unlike in professional boxing, amateur boxing is about technique, speed and skill rather than power. Boxers wear head guards and gloves with a white strip across the knuckle area and a point is scored when this white strip connects with the opponent’s target area.
A referee monitors the bout and ensures that only legal blows are scored and that holding doesn’t occur. The referee will stop the bout if a boxer is seriously injured, if one boxer is significantly dominating the other or if the score is severely imbalanced.
Bouts which end this way may be noted as "RSC" (referee stopped contest) with notations for an outclassed opponent (RSCO), outscored opponent (RSCOS), injury (RCSI) or head injury (RSCH).
The official Olympic weights for male amateur boxers are:
49kg, 52kg, 56kg, 60kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg, 91+kg
Women box at the following weights:
46kg; 48kg; 51kg; 54kg; 57kg; 60kg; 64kg; 69kg; 75kg; 81kg; 81+kg.
The 2012 London Olympics will see women boxing for the first time, at three weights: 51kg; 60kg; 75kg.