Jab! Jab! Hook! Boxing is a combat sport at its simplest: no kicks or takedowns, just two people sluggin' it out. We live in a time where the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has taken almost all eyes away from boxing, and the Paul brothers have capitalized on that. For that reason, we thought it would be good to cover the current climate of boxing and the basic rules; then, we'll analyze how championships and governing bodies come into play. Let's dive in!

Boxing Basics 101:

Boxing is a one-on-one fight where opponents can only hit each other with fists. These opponents fight for 12 rounds; rounds in boxing last 3 minutes, with a 1-minute intermission between each round. There are four ways to determine the winner of a fight: KO, TKO, DQ, and Decision.

A KO (knockout) is when a fighter is knocked down and can't stand or defend himself before the 10 count.

A TKO (technical knockout) can happen in two ways: by referee stoppage or if a fighter is knocked down thrice in 1 round. A referee can stop the fight if he feels a fighter cannot defend himself or is in danger if the fight continues.

DQs (disqualifications) happen if rules are broken repeatedly by one or both boxers. This includes punching below the waist or the back of the head.

The Decision occurs when both fighters have made it through 12 rounds, and the fight's winner is up to the judges. These judges score each round for each boxer out of 10 points. The points are tallied up, and the fighter with the most points wins the fight!

Now, that's the simple part of boxing; determining champions and matchups is where the sport can get rather confusing. But that's what we're here for! Let's break it down:

Boxing Championships Breakdown:

Have you ever watched a fight and thought, "Wow, look at all those belts—but what do they mean?" You're not alone.

Boxing championships and all that comes with them are incredibly confusing—it's a long story of politics and corruption, but we will get into it—so, for clarity, we're only going to cover world championships. (We promise that only focusing on world championships will provide plenty of boxing to understand and follow.) Let's get into the modern climate of boxing, or what is known as the Four Belt Era.

There are four sanctioning bodies in professional boxing, and each organization has a championship for each weight class. These sanctioning bodies came to be through improving corruption seen in previous organizations. When an organization becomes sanctioned, nothing happens to the previously sanctioned bodies.

The National Boxing Association became the World Boxing Association (WBA) in 1962. Corruption began in the WBA as many countries weren't represented, and the fights lacked cultural diversity. This called for the World Boxing Council (WBC) to be formed in 1963. The WBC has earned the reputation of being the most prestigious organization over the years. The WBC focuses on cultural diversity and worldwide representation.

These two governing bodies created a surplus of professional boxing until 1983, when the International Boxing Federation (IBF) was sanctioned as the third governing body. The IBF exists for the underdogs (or B-side boxers) who have trouble climbing the ranks in the WBA and WBC. In an industry full of politics and corruption, the IBF earned its spot by giving these underrated boxers a place to shine.

Lastly, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) is the youngest governing body of the four. The WBO earned its sanction by putting together some legitimately good boxing; the other sanctioning bodies were initially against legitimizing the WBO.

There's also The Ring magazine. The Ring has been around since the 1920s, and they reward belts to who they believe is the best boxer in each division. Even though these belts aren't won in a fight, they're still considered a great honor. If The Ring awards a boxer a championship, you'll usually see them carry this belt alongside other championships.

If you're still with us, this is where we'll go back and simplify things ... again.

Nobody would blame you if you thought that these World Championships lacked value. What brings things together is when a boxer can win all four championships in a weight division. When boxers win all four championships in their division/weight class, they become recognized as Undisputed Champions! Being an Undisputed Champion is the pinnacle of a boxer's career.

If a champion defends their title with dominance, they can be promoted to Super Champion. Once this happens, the regular World Championship becomes vacant. So, there can be a World Champion and a Super Champion coexisting in the same division.

So that's boxing, in a nutshell! What other sports should we break down? Email us!