How Many Rounds In Boxing?

Boxing is a combat sport where fights are settled in a ring, and as part of the 1867 Queensbury rules, the fights are divided into rounds. Rounds along with other rules were introduced to make the sport safer.

How long are boxing rounds, and how many boxing rounds are there in total?

Men’s boxing traditionally has 3 minute rounds for both amateur and professional bouts, and women’s bouts are currently shorter with two minute rounds.

There is a one minute rest between each round where both fighters must go back to their own corner. This is when they will also talk with their team and have any cuts dealt with.

The biggest difference between amateur and professional boxing is the amount of rounds in a bout. Amateur bouts generally have 3 x 3 minute rounds, whereas professional bouts start at 4 x 3 minute rounds up to 10 rounds unless it is a championship bout.

However, a fight doesn’t have to last the distance if one of the fighters is knocked out during the fight. Awarding the win to the other fighter.

How many rounds do world championship bouts have?

From the 1920s to the 1980s, world title fights were traditionally 15 rounds until they were reduced to 12 rounds. In 1982, Ray Mancini fought Duk Koo Kim for a 15 round contest, which Kim lost in the 14th round.

Five days after the fight, Kim tragically died, which forced the sanctioning bodies to review their rules.

Then, on March 27 1983, the first ever heavyweight title fight that was scheduled for 12 rounds occurred when Larry Holmes fought Lucien Rodriguez for the WBC heavyweight title.

By 1988, all of the other major sanctioning bodies had followed suit and also changed their world title bouts to 12 rounds.

You can read more about the different sanctioning bodies in our article ‘The different boxing title belts explained’ here.

Final Round

Depending on the fight, how many rounds in boxing can vary. It is good to watch a championship bout, knowing it has 12 rounds, especially if you have paid for the PPV.

You don’t want it to be over in a flash.

But, do you think fights could be more entertaining if it had more or less rounds? We would love to know your thoughts. Comment on our Facebook post here.