Boxing Betting Tips: Understanding and Utilizing BoxRec

Kelsey McCarson

July 3rd, 2018

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BoxRec.com is arguably the single most important website in boxing today. BoxRec’s impressive collection of statistics and fight records are open and available to the public through their website. There is no cost to view or use the data, and signing up for a free account opens up even more data such as fighter weights for specific bouts.

In short, BoxRec is dedicated to providing updated records for all professional boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki software-based encyclopedia of boxing useful for learning about the sport’s culture and history. It's the perfect compliment to top boxing betting sites.

Most everyone in the boxing world uses BoxRec as their go-to reference for 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 a fighter’s total number of rounds, overall resume and fight-specific outcomes. It's an essential tool for any boxing betting strategy

History of BoxRec

The hobby-site turned official recordkeeper for both the United States and the United Kingdom was created in 1999 as a simple database tool to help London-based promoter John Sheppard keep tabs on specific fighters. As told to SecondsOut.com’s Thomas Hauser, Sheppard’s original purpose was entirely utility-based:

“We had a matchmaker who I didn’t fully trust. I started a little database to track all the British boxers for myself as a way of keeping tabs on him. The Internet was taking off at the time. And I asked myself, ‘Why not put the data up on the Internet so everyone can use it?’

But once Sheppard loaded his site to a server for public access in May 2000, it immediately began to grow into an indispensable resource with huge amounts of daily traffic. The reach was far and wide. By 2005, BoxRec had become Sheppard’s full time job as well as the premier resource for boxing recordkeepers everywhere.

How BoxRec Works

BoxRec is maintained by volunteer editors from all over the world. These passionate recordkeepers ensure information about bouts fought in their region are consistently kept up to date. BoxRec’s editors come from 49 different countries with the highest volume of volunteers hailing from the United States and United Kingdom.

“For current records, our editors and matchmakers enter scheduled bouts,” said Shepperd. “The initial results come in often from editors witnessing the fights. Then we confirm these results a few days later when the official commissions reports come in.”

Additionally, BoxRec’s mission includes providing accurate historical information on fights stretching back to before the turn of the 20th century. These facts and figures are slowly gleaned from old newspaper and magazine reports and entered by researchers into BoxRec’s database as they are uncovered.

“It's really just a typical website, a framework at the front end and a relational database behind it,” Shepperd said.

But the usefulness of BoxRec has been paramount to a sport known historically as a culture filled with shady characters, specifically matchmakers and promoters, who constantly seek new ways to bend the rules for personal gain.

Criticism of BoxRec

While BoxRec’s mission and purpose is universally praised among those in the boxing community, there are parts of the website to which many people in the sport take issue. The two most common complaints about BoxRec are its rankings system and the lack of distinction between legitimate world title bouts and secondary ones.

“I think BoxRec is a wonderful research and reference tool for everyone who loves and/or is involved with boxing,” said. RingTV.com’s Doug Fischer. “From fans and media to matchmakers and publicists, it allows us to see who fought who, when and where, at the touch of our fingertips.”

But Fischer cautions those who would use BoxRec as their only point of reference.

“It isn't 100% accurate, and one certainly shouldn't try to evaluate a boxer's worth solely based on those stats or BoxRec's ranking system.”

Noted author and historian Springs Toledo agrees.

“They ought to challenge the status quo in the sport,” said Toledo. “And that would begin with rethinking their practice of including nonsense title defenses in their entries.”

How to Use BoxRec

BoxRec provides invaluable information about fights and fighters, but it’s important to stick to the most useful data points BoxRec provides before placing wagers on any of the top boxing betting sites.

BoxRec is the best place to look at fighter resumes. This includes the fighter’s height, age and reach as well as win-loss records, fight outcomes and opponent names. BoxRec records include information on whether a fighter made weight for the bout and also is a quick way to look at a fighter's last few fights to see if he is on any sort of streak over relevant competition.

But Boxrec’s ranking system is purely statistic-based. Many in the sport disparage it as faulty and useless. It is not referenced by any industry leaders as a legitimate source of divisional rankings, and some of the historical and pound-for-pound lists are downright laughable. While statistics and other mathematical measures can be used to create relevant ranking systems in sports such as baseball and basketball, the nature of stat-keeping in boxing is such that there is little data recorded and kept about fights, so creating a rankings system based purely on statistical comparisons is certain folly.

Moreover, the proliferation of world title belts offered by alphabet organizations, as well as Boxrec’s listing of regional and secondary titles alongside more legitimate championships such as those offered by the four main sanctioning bodies in boxing (IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO), make reviewing records of fights and fighters for relevant championship information a daunting task--even for people long involved in the sport.

Of even greater concern is the fact that Boxrec doesn’t track the single most historically important accomplishment a fighter can attain on their fighter record pages: winning a lineal world boxing championship. Lineal world championships, such as those tracked by Ring Magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, are generally accepted as being the top honor a fighter can earn in any given weight class.

More to Consider

There are many important factors to consider before deciding how to place a wager on any of boxing’s top betting markets. Boxing is a unique culture with 17 different weight classes and a myriad of sanctioning bodies and rankings systems. Boxrec is only one resource among many to consider before playing any of the markets, so be sure to read Gambling.com’s comprehensive boxing betting strategy guide so you can make the most out of every opportunity.