Boxing Betting Tips: Fight to Go the Distance Market

Kelsey McCarson

June 22nd, 2018

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Boxing’s fight to go the distance market is one of the most straightforward boxing betting strategies and overall gambling plays in all of sports. The idea is simple. For whatever specific bout on which one wishes to place the wager, select whether the fight will go the distance (or not).

The distance is a boxing term used to describe the full number of rounds scheduled. If a fight ends for any reason before all scheduled rounds are completed (whether by stoppage, disqualification, technical foul or retirement), the fight does not meet the necessary criteria.

As an example, if someone placed a wager on one of the record-setting bets on 2017’s Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight and bet that the fight would go the distance, the person placing the bet would lose based on the fight being stopped in the tenth round of the scheduled twelve.

Distances Can Vary

Before you place a wager on this boxing betting market, it's important to know professional boxing matches are limited to a maximum of twelve rounds. This has been the case since the early 1980s, following a systemic change made in response to the death lightweight Duk Koo Kim in 1982 after a fourteen-round fight with Ray Mancini. Before the change, fights during what is considered by most to be the modern boxing era were limited to a maximum of fifteen rounds.

The number of scheduled rounds for any given fight is based on the experience level of the boxers. The highest volume of fights in the sport are scheduled for either four, six, eight or ten rounds, though most of these fights receive little or no television coverage and are not typically handicapped by bookmakers.

Championship bouts, as well as fights between highly experienced top-level stars in the sport, (i.e. the ones garnering the most action on betting markets), are generally scheduled for twelve rounds.

How to Approach the Market

There are many factors to consider when placing a wager with a top boxing betting site on a fight to go the distance, rather than betting on the method of victory or on an outright winner. It’s important for anyone betting on boxing to gather as much information about the fighters as possible.

The most important data points to thoroughly research and consider are the number of rounds scheduled for the fight, the accomplishments of the participants, their styles as well as their overall talent levels and abilities.

Boxing Records and Fighter Resumes

BoxRec is one of the best resources in the sport. Here is the place to review statistical data points about upcoming bouts, such as the number of rounds scheduled, location and officials, as well as historical points of interests such as total number of rounds a fighter has fought, a fighter’s resume of wins, losses and draws, etc.

The information at BoxRec should be carefully considered for context. While similar win-loss records can lead one to believe a given fight is evenly matched, the truth of the matter is that boxing promoters employ matchmakers specifically for the purpose of ensuring their fighter is matched favorably against the competition on the way up the ranks.

So while a fight between two undefeated fighters with ten bouts between them might seem like an even match on paper, it’s highly likely one of the fighters has a much greater chance to win than the other. This is especially true for fighters who are not yet competing for championships.

Like other sports, fighters enter their prime years as an athlete from around 25 years old to about 33, so it’s important to always check the ages of the participants along with the record of their competition.

World Titles and Rankings Systems

When reviewing the accomplishments of a fighter, stick to the four major alphabet organizations. A world title from either the IBF, WBA, WBC or WBO is a valid and important benchmark for a fighter, but other organizations (such as the IBO) award title belts as well and are generally not recognized as legitimate world championships.

Another important consideration is world championship honors awarded by two independent media entities: The Ring Magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB). Both groups claim to track lineal boxing championships and both recognitions are generally accepted by the boxing world.

A lineal championship is far more important historically than those proliferated by the alphabet sanctioning organizations, and the fighter rankings maintained by both Ring Magazine and the TBRB are considered much more authoritative than those used by alphabet organizations.

Other Data Points

Other important research tools include CompuBox and BoxStat. CompuBox is ringside for most major fights and tracks types and number of punches thrown and landed. They also release other stats and figures about fights and fighters during and after promotional buildups.

BoxStat is an advanced boxing statistics group dedicated to tracking and extrapolating existing measures into more useful data. They make infographics for most major fights and include various pieces of information that is useful for building a competent pre-fight analysis.

Quantifying Talent and Skill Levels

Researching stats and figures can only get you so far. The truest way to determine whether a fight will go the distance is through understanding the combatants involved: their talent levels, skill sets and styles with which the fight.

The best way to learn about boxing is by watching fights. YouTube, as well as other video-sharing websites, include a wide-array of fight catalogs for both recent and historical fights.

Before placing a wager in any boxing betting market, it’s important to watch fighters to get a sense of how they operate in the ring. Only by watching a fighter perform in the ring can one determine a fighter's talent, skill and style, and only through seeing a vast number of other fighters can one offer a comprehensive and comparative analysis of each man against the other.

Understanding the subtle nuances of the sweet science is a lifelong pursuit. Of utmost importance to betting on whether a fight goes the distance is understanding if the combatants are evenly matched. Even if a fighter doesn’t possess a lot of knockouts on his resume, a fight will be halted if officials determine one fighter is outclassing another for safety reasons. Fights can also be stopped because of cut and other damage that occurs due to an accumulation of punches.

Betting The Market

Once one accomplishes the sufficient amount of research necessary to place a wager on boxing’s fight to go the distance market (including number of rounds, accomplishments of participants, their styles, talents and abilities, age, weight, etc.), determining how to place the bet is a simple yes or no question.

Will the bout end before both fighters get to the end of the last round? Or will the fight no go the distance? Getting it correct when placing the wager is the only thing that matters.