Would you prefer a straight up fight to the finish with no breaks? What would be the upsides and downsides to this?
No, rounds are fine. The only question is whether to go back to 15 rounds. But the basic construct of the sport - three minute rounds with 60 seconds in-between - is fine.
I personally think it would be great. It's a weird system where 2 guys fight but only for 3 minutes at a time and get to sit down on a stool for a minute and talk to their buddies... not to mention when when one hurts the other at the end of the round one is saved by the end of the round... which would never happen in a real fight... and lets not forget fighting up to only to maximum time allotted and letting some corrupt old geezers determine what happens to your career... One on one until someone drops is ideal.
It's just not realistic, because you know full well that there's many fights where a stoppage just isn't gonna happen. People aren't gonna tune up in to watch two guys who lack power duke it out for 4 hours, and then the ending result is of course... one of em is dead. Your problem seems to be with the scoring; which is legit, and the same the grievance all the rest of us have. Corrupt scoring is the biggest problem in boxing (that, and the best not fighting the best). If those two problems got addressed, the sport would flourish.
You’re Basically Describing Pre-Marquess of Queensbury Rules Boxing, the London Prize Ring Rules… They Still Used a “Rounds” Concept, Per Se, But Each Time a Fighter Rose from a Knockdown and Stood on the “Scratch” (a Line Drawn Center Ring), a NEW “Round” Began… It Actually Proved to Be LESS Fan Friendly Than Contemporary Boxing, Believe it or Not… 3 Hour, 45 “Round” Fights and Shit, Many of Which Ended in MUTUAL Draws… REED
I've never understood the idea to change the 3 on 1 off formula. It's a perfect science. Variation have been tried, and they're all worse. One long, drawn out rounds would result in passive, boring tactical match-ups and would ultimately, massively dissuade slug fest's.
Agreed (save for your comment if it being a perfect science, which is undeniably false ). Fighting to the ''death'' concept is a nerd's fantasy which, in practice, would lead to massively boring events in most cases.
