I finally saw MILLION DOLLAR BABY and loved it, despite some problems with the story. One of the problems I had was with the hooker-turned-boxer who was known for fighting really dirty. I mean, hitting people when they are down for the count, using elbows, late shots, cheap shots, etc.
Now from what I know about boxing – and that’s admittedly little – I didn’t buy for a second that a boxer who fights that blatantly dirty would be allowed to stay a sanctioned fighter. Wouldn’t the boxing commission throw them out on top of their ear (after Tyson bit it off)?
Yeah, yeah. I know it’s just a movie. But in real life, could a boxer get away with that kind of stuff?
Tyson didn’t do that on a regular basis. Did it once, was suspended, lost the fight (the boxer in the movie WINS her match). I’m talking REGULARLY cheating.
Someone said, boxing is what they do in the Olympics; prize fighting is done for money. Things that would get an Olympian disqualified are a little more accepted in prize fighting. If the referee of a prize fight observes a foul, he is required to warn the fighter. Repeated fouls for the same offensive will get a prize fighter disqualified as will a blatantly illegal move like biting chunks out of the opponent’s ear. If the fighter doesn’t repeat the foul that earned him a warning, the fight proceeds and the fighter may resort to using a different foul, garnering another warning and so on. Basically, so long as he or she doesn’t repeat a foul that garnered a warning, he is not disqualified UNLESS the fight degenerates into an unbroken string of fouls. Tyson was allowed to continue fighting, IMHO, because his fights generated a lot of money for all concerned.
Remember that this was womens’ boxing, which was (and is) looked upon as being a poor relation of the mens’ sport. More of a cat-fight-voyeur spectator sport, if you will. I would suspect that the rules are more lax, and what the ref doesn’t see never happened.
Having been to a few boxing matches myself, I’m constantly surprised at how easy it is to cheat.
As far as being a “cagy ringwise vet” goes, there are some fairly common things that go on that really take awhile before the ref catches on: presenting body parts that would be illegal blows so the opponent won’t take them*; maneuvering the opponent to the ropes and keeping the referee to their backs and letting out a low blow and one tactic that I routinely see but have never seen a ref call a foul for is a guy who always comes in with a flurry and once the opponent gets ready to “riposte,” the first guy enters into a clinch and the ref has to separate them.
Needless to say, there’s a big difference between low-card boxers with short careers (either because some up-and-comer will knock them silly or they won’t be able to get a promoter) and mid- & upper-carders who respect the rules.
Oh, as for getting away with it, I believe the judges see a lot of this stuff and occasionally scores get fudged to take cheating/dirty tactics into account. Whether that’s legal or not is beyond me, but more often than not, it appears that justice is served.
This is tremendously frustrating. I’ve encountered it in sparring and while the temptation to take that kidney shot is great, it’s both illegal and not terribly nice.
A woman (former amateur boxer now pro) who trains at my gym was in a match with an opponent who kept presenting the back of her head when she got in trouble. The opponent knew the woman wouldn’t take the illegal shot and, being outclassed, relied on this tactic to avoid getting pounded. The ref caught on (after repeated incidents and the woman’s corner shouting this out) and eventually told the two of them that he wasn’t going to call a foul if the shot to the back of the head connected. Needless to say, that stopped.
I don’t know about the rules being more lax. I think it’s more a matter of where/how the fight’s promoted. An amateur fight in front of the local Teamsters Union is going to be a bit different than a pro low-card match before a world championship bout.