“Is This Safe for the Fighters?”: Boxing World Raise their Concerns Over Sports Media Company’s ‘No Draws’ Rule

The OTX, an acronym for Overtime Boxing, wants to inculcate narrative storytelling content for up-and-coming fighters to further attract Generation Z back to the sport of boxing. The GM of Overtime, Brandon Rhodes, has stated that they want to hook their audience with a purpose behind every fight so that the audience can actually connect with the punches that are being thrown. For that reason, the Sports media company is going the extra mile to try new things in the sport, The OTX ring will be 18-foot-by18-foot which will result in more action.

Moreover, they have also introduced the concept of ‘Overtime Round’ which will be sought in case, any draws happen. So, this would be an extra round to decide the winner of the bout. Recently, this got executed in one of the OTX SZN 1 fights between Lorenzo Parra and Javon Woodard Jr. The fans have also expressed their views regarding the inventive round.

The fans worry about the wellness of the fighters involved

The way KSI‘s Misfits Boxing is trying its best to introduce creative formats for boxing fights. In a similar way, the OTX is playing around with the conventional methods of boxing. The fight was originally an eight-round bout, which  ended in a majority draw. But then another round was introduced where Parra secured the win against Woodland Jr. Let’s see what the fans have to say about this experiment.

One of the fans asked whether it was safe for the fighters to add an additional round in the fight like this. They wrote, “Is this safe for the fighters? I honestly don’t think this is cool for the sport of boxing“.

Another fan stated that it’s a bit “cool” as it forces just a winner to get named in the end. They wrote, “That’s actually cool. Where a winner must be declared“.

One fan didn’t agree with such a rule, and even went ahead and called it “fake“. They wrote, “Fake boxing. Draws are a apart of the sport“.

A fan remarked that this is quite amazing for the sport, as nobody wants their fight to end up a draw after training so much. They wrote, “This is GREAT for the sport! Ain’t nobody training MONTHS for no damn draw!”

While, an Instagram user stated that this wouldn’t be acceptable at the higher levels of boxing, as there’s a reason the authorities trimmed on the 12-round bout. They wrote, “Yeah this isn’t going to fly at the top highest levels of boxing. There’s a reason why going longer than 12 rounds was voted against by every major sanctioning body.”

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So, the fans had different opinions about this new kind of rule introduced by the OTX for their boxing fans all over the world. It will definitely be interesting to see how things unfold for the sports media company in their future events. What are your thoughts about this experimental round? Tell us in the comments section.

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