Introduction
Many people identify this style of boxing with disgruntled city boys or the 1999 film Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. However, in recent years, the term's meaning has broadened.
It all started in the 1990s on Wall Street, when city youths were training at well-known amateur boxing gyms and decided to have a fight as well. Then it moved to London's City, and now it's in pretty much every financial centre on the planet. In cities like Singapore, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, it's quite popular.
White-collar boxing is a type of boxing where people who work in white-collar jobs train to fight in special events. The majority of the participants have never boxed before.
Charity fights at black-tie parties, for example, or celebrity contests like Ricky Gervais vs. Grant Bovey.
In the middle, there's a wide range of unregulated and unlicensed activities that are still legal.
It's simply a freer, more laissez-faire environment in which many individuals are now choosing to fight because it's simpler to organize fights, there's less paper work, they don't have to go to pre-fight discussions and meetings, and they don't have to go to regular health checks. Simply said, there is less regulation.
How It All Started
Gleason's Gym in New York City is where white-collar boxing began. In the late 1980s, gym owner Bruce Silverglade began organizing casual fights between his clientele's white-collar professionals, which grew into recurring monthly events. The sport rose to prominence in the mid-1990s, thanks to the efforts of boxing promoter Alan Lacey, who turned it into a recurring monthly event.
By 2004, more than 65 percent of Gleason's Gym members were from a white-collar background, up from 10% in the early 1990s. The surge in membership from this group has been credited with keeping boxing gyms profitable in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Alan Lacey, an event management consultant who co-promoted the WBO middleweight championship battle between Gary Stretch and Chris Eubank in 1991, just discovered boxing training at the age of 45.
Over the next few years, he became enamoured with the sport and began training with former European champion Jimmy McDonnell and multiple Olympian and world title challenger Adrian Dodson, who, having spent most of his youth at Gleason's Gym in New York, encouraged Lacey to pursue his dream of boxing, even at the age of 48, and arranged for him to visit Gleason's to box there.
Lacey determined on the journey back to London that white-collar boxing could thrive in the city.
In July 2000, in partnership with Gleason's owner Bruce Silverglade, the first white-collar boxing event, "Capital Punishment," witnessed a team of Wall Street bankers travel to London to battle at Broadgate Arena, attracting intrigue and media attention.
Lacey boxed twice that night and has since focused solely on the sport's development. Following "Capital Punishment," there have been over 100 sold-out events, including "Celebrity Boxing" on the BBC in 2003, which featured Les Dennis and Ricky Gervais and raised over £1.5 million for different charities.
How Dangerous the Game Is?
Lance Ferguson-Prayogg, a white-collar fighter, fainted during a fight in Nottingham's The Forum nightclub on June 21, 2014. He was rushed to the hospital by paramedics, but he died the next day. His death was eventually traced to the usage of diet pills rather than boxing, according to an autopsy.
Mostly it is played safe and good quality equipments are used. In the white-collar boxing arena, sixteen-ounce gloves are required to protect competitors from hard punches and hand damage. For lesser weight classes and female athletes, some gyms allow 14 oz gloves. Furthermore, within the ring, headgear, groyne protection, and mouthguards are required.
It's a physically hard activity, and when your body tires, your hands begin to sag, making you more vulnerable to taking additional shots.
Regulating Authorities
Lacey and Bruce Silverglade co-founded the International White Collar Boxing Association (IWCBA) in 2001, the first and still the most important advisory and sanctioning body in the profession, with the goal of regulating matches with a focus on safety. The IWCBA uses the same weight categories as professional boxing and gives each weight category's champion a belt.
Non-title matches are matched based on level of expertise rather than actual weight. A team of minimum 3 paramedics, an ambulance, and a medical examination before and after is a must.
The IWCBA has sanctioned over 1,500 bouts throughout the years, with no injuries other than bloody noses. In the United Kingdom and the United States, bouts sanctioned by the IWBCA are the most common.
The World White Collar Boxing Association (WWCBA) was created in London, United Kingdom, in 2007 to govern and promote the sport around the world, with a focus on the Asia–Pacific area. The WWCBA provides a common platform in the form of rules and procedures that allows boxers to compete for championship titles on a national, regional, and worldwide level.
The WWCBA sanctioned nine competitions across the world in 2008. To achieve high standards, the WWCBA collaborates with other boxing organizations such as the amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA).
Bouts
Bouts are normally three 2-minute rounds ("3-2" format), as opposed to the Amateur Code's three 3-minute rounds (3-3) for men and 4-2 format for women. In the absence of a knock-out, IWCBA matches have typically been "no decision" draws (tied), whereas the WWCBA ranking system requires all fights to be decided on a win-loss basis.
The Boodles Boxing Ball series, which was attended by Prince Harry, and the "Hedge Fund Fight Nite," which raised over $200,000 for charity, were the first significant grand events, both of which were arranged by The Real Fight Club.
In 2005, more than 950 black-tie dinner guests attended a strictly non-profit black-tie event at the London Hilton hosted by The David Adams Leukaemia Appeal Fund & Mr King, which collected over £100,000 for The Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Campaign. Until 2013, it was the biggest tournament of its kind.
Vanda Promotions hosted an event in April 2009 at Suntec Singapore Exhibition & Convention Centre, which drew over 900 black-tie guests.
The Channel Island of Jersey had its inaugural white-collar boxing event on Saturday, July 18, 2009. Over 600 paying, black-tie guests witnessed nine fights at the Hotel de France, raising roughly £15,000 for local charity.
WCB is a relatively young name in the industry. WCB allows boxers to generate money for a charity of their choice by hosting sold-out shows at prestigious venues and follows all standards of the IWCBA.
WCB uses the same weight categories as professional boxing and gives each weight category's champion a belt.
