Boxing World Championships

So some friends and I went to the AIBA Boxing Championships, held at the new arena near Al-Sadd Sports Club.

Nicely set up, plenty of room and lots of people watching.

They had two rings so there were always two matches simultaneously. AIBA Boxing requires three rounds of (I think) three minutes a round. Unlike Olympic boxing there’s no padded helmets so things are a bit rougher, but with only three rounds there was little chance of a KO and sure enough we didn’t see one. We saw about three hours of boxing so that was around 10-11 fights.

There were some good fights, and one got pretty bloody as a Puerto Rican took a nasty cut above the eye which kept bleeding down his face. He still won though.

There was also a big crowd of Irish supporters wearing emerald green clothing cheering on their countrymen. Boxing is a big deal in Ireland. There were also a handful of vocal Cuban fans, who had a lot to cheer about as many of the boxers were Cuban (another country where boxing is a major sport).

Watching it there seemed to be two types of boxers: aggressive boxers who attack a lot risking leaving themselves open for a counter-punch, and defensive boxers who block more and wait for a mistake or opportunity. Needless to say I found aggressive boxing more exciting to watch, even though it is not necessarily more successful than defensive boxing (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t). The best fights were with two aggressive boxers.

The finals are Wednesday and Thursday. You can buy tickets online or through Virgin.