Wondering why boxers always fight shirtless? Is there any logical reason behind that or they just want to show off their cool ripped body? Let see: Why Do Boxers Not Wear Shirts?
Boxers prefer to fight without shirts due to it’s unwanted restrictions in terms of free body movement. Boxers can wear shirts but it can mislead the boxing officials while calling their decisions and might increases the chances of error.
Here, I’ll dig deeper into 4 different reasons why boxers like shirtless fights and why amateur boxers are still required to wear a jersey:
Why Do Boxers Fight Shirtless?
The idea of boxers should fight without shirts pops out for a very simple reason. It gives confidence to both fighters that no one is hiding anything inside their shirts and it’s a completely fair match.
Here’re the most common reasons boxers prefer to stay shirtless inside the ring:
1. To Make Scoring Easy for Judges
Apart from the comfort and boxer’s freedom, this is the most important benefit, as it makes it easier for boxing officials to call the points.
According to one of the studies performed on boxers, Knockouts and technical knockouts occurs in only half of the boxing matches. In the rest of the matches, it’s all up to the judges to take the decision and call the match’s output.
Boxing officials keep their eye on many different factors (Aggression effectiveness, cleanness of the hard punches, boxer’s defense as well as their generalship in the ring) during the match and score each round on a scale of 1 to 10 points.
When a punch lands directly onto an opponent without any obstruction, it is considered as a clean punch. It is one of the essential aspects of boxing scores and significantly affects the overall point board.
Some of the professional boxers can deliver punches with insanely faster speed and that’s why scoring in boxing tournaments is already quite questionable. In such a situation, adding an extra layer on the boxer’s skin definitely increases the chances of error.
As no one can derivate a mathematical formula to judge the hardness and cleanness of the punches from the number of punches being punched, it’s all up to the judges to determine the punch and score it.
Even a little loose shirt can mislead the judges to determine whether a shot hits the body or not. That’s why in order to make the scoring system fairer, boxers prefer to fight without shirts.
2. To Make Wound Care Easier
Another reason why boxers prefer to fight shirtless is due to interference of distressed shirts during the treatments in-between the rounds.
Boxers getting cuts during the match is definitely not a rare thing. But: Most of the time, instead of ignoring it throughout the match, many boxers prefer to treat these cuts during the round breaks.
That’s the reason why almost all of the professional boxers have their dedicated cutmen in their corner of the ring that can take care of the boxer’s wounds during the whole course of the match.
You can imagine, how difficult it is for them to apply the medication as well as appropriate pressure on the cuts and obscured shirts are only going to make the situation even worse.
3. To Allow Comfortable Body Movement
Boxing matches are already ugly as it is. A load of sweating and crunches are all real. There is a total of 12 rounds in a professional boxing match that can last up to 45 minutes. That’s why boxers want to keep their body movement as smooth as possible.
Wearing a shirt during a boxing match can significantly slows down the pace of the fight. A shirtless fights not only help boxers in terms of movement freedom but also avoid overheating.
An intense boxing match asks for better arm extension, constant impact to the torso, and more importantly maximum mobility. Even one of these activities is more than enough to make the shirt highly uncomfortable to a boxer.
Professional boxers always prefer comfort and don’t want to hamper their performance by any means, because even a small delay between the punch response can decide their win or loss.
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4. To Avoid Easy Clinching
When fighters get intensely involved in the match, it’s a natural instinct for all of us to clinch or grab at something like a shirt.
Clinching is a defensive technique in which the boxer leans on their opponent and wraps their hands to create a kind of pause in the match. This technique provides a recovery time to the losing fighter and also hinders the momentum of a dominating opponent.
Wearing a shirt makes it easier for fighters to clinch as compared to the body. As there is already enough clinching happening in boxing, officials, as well as boxing fans, don’t want more of that.
That’s why boxers prefer to leave their shirt out and fight shirtless in the ring. If there are lots of benefits of going shirtless in the ring, then:
Why Do Amateur Boxers Wear Shirts?
According to USA Boxing Rulebook, amateur boxers need to wear shirts as it prevent abrasions and reduces the rubbing of rope against torso and help them to clean sweat as well as to keep the dirt off their gloves.
Wearing a colorful west (Either blue or red, as per the order assign to you) not only makes the judging easier but it also delivers a pretty good indication to boxer about the target area where he/she can hit legally.
Along with building the team spirit in the atheletes, jerseys are also considered as a great place to promote tournaments, gyms, and clubs.
Final Thoughts
Professional boxers always prefer a shirtless fight because shirts tends to create unnecessary restrictions in terms of body movement, game strategy, and their treatment.
Also, it’s necessary for boxing officials to look for cleanness of the punches and the way they are being delivered. That’s why, It’s almost like a rule that everyone is following.
If you find this article helpful and solves your doubt, don’t forget to share it with your friends. Happy Boxing!
