Action at the boxing ring starts with the three dings that all boxers and boxing audiences are well aware of. The first sound starts the round and the match. While it is fantastic to watch your favorite fighter knock off the opponent, sometimes you feel the round ended too early.

A UFC fight lasts either 3 or 5 rounds. Each round is 5 minutes long. There is a 1-minute rest between each round. This means a 3-round fight will last about 17 minutes, and a 5-round fight will last about 29 minutes when you include rest time. Rounds in Youth Boxing Matches Bantam weight for 8-10 year olds – There are three rounds and each one lasts 1-minute Juniors for 11-12-year olds – There are three rounds and each one lasts 1-minute Intermediate for 13-14 year olds – The rounds last 90 seconds. Junior Senior Olympics for 15-16 year. Since each round lasts for three minutes, 12 rounds require 36 minutes of fighting and about 11 minutes of break time. This brings the total match time to 48 minutes, including the decision time, interviews and other things. Forty-eight minutes is ideal for television broadcast because it can be comfortably accommodated in an hour’s slot. How long does it take to learn Mixed Martial Arts. This would also be for 3-minute rounds to get used to 3-minute rounds in amateur fights; Most amateurs work and some have families so some gyms only do 1 to 2 hours of training 3 to 5 days a week. Once you go pro your training has to increase to at least 3 to 4 hours a day 5 days a week.

So how long does a boxing round last? Usually, 12 rounds for professional boxers. However, it really depends. Boxing matches are held all over the world with different rules, age groups, types, among other differences. The time of each round, the number of rounds and the period between two subsequent rounds vary.

Put another way, let’s ask ourselves? Is it fair to compare two 17-year olds fighting an amateur match to that where 30-year olds are competing for Olympic medals?

Professional Boxing

Professional boxing, also known as prize-fighting, is a regulated form of the sport, and the athletes must obey the criteria set by the governing association.

Boxing has evolved throughout the century and the rules have changed frequently. We’ll tell you the round rules as they exist in their latest iteration.

Bouts

• Have an upper limit of 12 rounds
• Experience determines the number of rounds fought
• Most matches have 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 rounds

Round Duration

Each round lasts for three minutes. Between two subsequent rounds, there is a break of one minute to allow the boxer to rest.

During this break, the boxer is also given feedback on his fight moves and strategy by his coach.

Number of Rounds

A professional boxing round has evolved from unlimited to now, where it has an upper cap of 12.

There are two reasons for this change in the number of rounds:

Athlete safety

How Long Are Ufc Championship Rounds

While it looks great on television when your favorite player is winning in the ring, it is not as great for the fighters. Boxers have to take a lot of punches and bear pain, all the while keeping firm and continue hitting.

In the interest of the safety of the boxers, twelve is the cap.

Television broadcast

Sports is one of the most-watched categories of content on television. Since each round lasts for three minutes, 12 rounds require 36 minutes of fighting and about 11 minutes of break time.

This brings the total match time to 48 minutes, including the decision time, interviews and other things. Forty-eight minutes is ideal for television broadcast because it can be comfortably accommodated in an hour’s slot.

The channels broadcasting the matches get a healthy mix of sports content and commercial breaks.

If we compare the standard 12-round match with a 15-round game, the broadcast duration needs to be 90 minutes for just three extra rounds. That is a 50% increase in broadcast time for only a 25% increase in the number of rounds.

Since sports broadcast has a huge fan following, the partners agree to pay a lot of money, and this needs to be covered from the advertisements during the commercial breaks.

Amateur Boxing

Let’s be clear on one aspect – while the type of the match is “amateur boxing,” the boxers are amateurs in no way. They are the kind who could knock off a real amateur in a few punches.

This is practiced at the Commonwealth Games, Pan American games, among other organizations. You could, perhaps, now get a sense of what we said earlier.

Amateur Boxing Rounds – Duration

The rules for amateur boxing were last revised about 11 years back. The most recent change that has been in effect since the beginning of 2009 devises the following rules:

• Round duration for men: 3 minutes
• Round duration for women: 2 minutes
• Fight duration for men: 3 rounds per match (9 minutes of total boxing time)
• Fight duration for women: 4 rounds per game (8 minutes of total boxing time)

Scoring, too, varies in amateur boxing when compared to professional boxing. There is one criterion for scoring points:

The number of clean punches delivered by the boxer

This is in contrast to professional boxing, where power and knockouts come into the picture as far as scoring is concerned.

Revision

The new rules that date back 11 years were set in place to ensure safety in the sport. Longer rounds and a higher number of rounds per match were associated with concussions, exhaustion, and muscle problems.

Youth Matches

These matches have athletes who fight for their clubs. These matches are exciting too but unfortunately, they do not get enough attention when compared to amateur and professional boxing.

Again, do not let the world mislead you. Youth doesn’t necessarily mean teenagers or twenty-somethings. You may find people who have crossed thirty years of age.

Youth matches are enjoyable because these fights have a more personal component and a sense of belongingness – people fighting for their club. International fame and prize money are not in the picture and this very fact brings a lot of difference between youth matches and the others.

Here is a list of boxing round lengths for frequent youth fights:

The table above summarizes the data. The junior and bantam are for the starters and they’re expected to fight only for three minutes.

At the intermediate level, the boxers are supposed to fight for 4.5 minutes while the master class are true to their name and fight upwards of 30 minutes!

Conclusion

Boxing matches have different round durations that depend on the class of the match – international, amateur, or youth. Boxing time varies from as little as 3 minutes in youth matches to upwards of 30 minutes in an international game.

Dedicated associations govern match rules and the most common boxing round duration stands at 3 minutes while the rest period between two subsequent rounds is relatively universal at one minute.

Boxing has evolved over the decades, and now the safety of these fighters is considered essential, and rules are revised to ensure that.

As a new UFC fan, or even as a casual viewer, it is important to know the nuances of a UFC fight. And one of the most important aspects of any combat sport is the number of rounds involved. So in this post, I’m going to cover the following: How many rounds are there in UFC fights?

There are either 3 or 5 rounds in a UFC fight. Normal bouts are 3 rounds in length, while championship and main event fights are scheduled for 5 rounds. Each round is five minutes long, with a one-minute rest period between each round.

In the rest of this post, I’ll go more in-depth on how the round system works, as well as exceptions to the rules stated above.

When Are Fights 5 Rounds Instead Of 3?

As mentioned, MMA fights can only either last 3 or 5 rounds. 5-round fights are reserved for championship fights and main event fights. A typical UFC with no special circumstances surrounding it will always be three rounds.

Championship fights are self-explanatory. If there’s a belt on the line, then the fight goes five rounds. But what is considered a main event fight?

Basically, the last fight of the night on any fight card is considered the main event. This goes for any type of UFC event, whether it’s a pay-per-view or a free fight on cable tv. The last fight will go five rounds.

Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule.

As far as championship fights go, special circumstances can cause the fight to be three rounds. The most famous example is probably the match between then Light Heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier, when he faced Anderson Silva at UFC 200.

Championship Fights At 3 Rounds

Cormier was originally scheduled to defend his title against interim-champ Jon Jones, in a highly-anticipated rematch between the two. Unfortunately, Jones tested positive for a banned substance the week of the fight, meaning he was unable to compete.

It was soon after announced that former middleweight champion Anderson Silva would step in to replace Jones. However, Silva had one stipulation. Because he would be moving up a weight class, and the fight would be on two-days notice, Silva would only fight if the bout was scheduled for three rounds.

According to ESPN: “Anderson is giving Daniel the opportunity to fight, to make money and to perform on UFC 200,” White said. “So if Anderson wants three rounds, if Anderson wants two rounds, he’ll get it.”

How Many Rounds In Mma

Thus, Light-Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier fought Silva in a Light-Heavyweight bout that lasted three rounds, and that was not considered a defense of his title.

Main Event Fights At Three Rounds

As stated, main events are usually scheduled for five rounds. However, there are exceptions that can shorten the main event to a three-rounder.

These exceptions are often similar to the example of Cormier vs Silva given previously, where some unexpected change happens on short notice.

Typically what happens is that the main event of a fight card will be cancelled for whatever reason, forcing the UFC to put another fight as the main event.

However, fighters train differently for three-round fights than they do for five-round fights. So it would be unfair for the new main event fighters to compete for five rounds when they weren’t prepared for it.

A recent example of this occurred at UFC Moscow in 2019. The main event was to be a heavyweight fight between Alexander Volkov and Junior Dos Santos.

However, Dos Santos pulled out of the fight citing an infection as the issue, about two weeks before the fight.

The co-main event was a featherweight bout between Zabit Magomedsharipov and Calvin Kattar. However, this was a three-round fight.

With the main event still in question, the UFC decided to move this fight to the main event spot, while keeping it for three rounds, as the fighters would not be prepared for a five-rounder.

Conclusion

In short, UFC fights last either three rounds for a normal bout, or five rounds for championship fights and main events. Every round is five minutes long, with a one-minute rest period between every round.

If you enjoyed this post, consider checking out similar posts on the Martial Arts History page. Thanks for reading!