The International Boxing Association (IBA) has announced its plan to implement a new version of the bout review in 2022 following the Board of Directors decision on November 5. It concerns all IBA and Continental elite and youth boxing events.

The IBA’s intention is to implement the renewed bout review in a manual mode already at the IBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships in La Nucía, Spain which starts on November 14. The full digital ecosystem is to be implemented by January 2023.

A hand will be raised by the Observer to activate the review process so that the respective coaches and boxers are fully aware that a review has been initiated. Immediately upon the conclusion of the bout, and within 5 minutes, the review must be done and concluded.

The Bout Review will be automatically activated if there is a discrepancy between the results of the 5 Judges and both the Observer and Evaluator; the review will be activated in the result of an inconsistency with the following points decisions (3:2). The review will also be considered if the actions of the Referee have contravened the Technical and Competition Rules, which have impacted on the overall result of the bout. This must be agreed upon by both the Observer and Evaluator in the first instance.

The scores will be compared between the respective Judges and those of the Observer and Judge Evaluator.  If the Observer and Judge Evaluator agree that the decision of the Judges is correct, then there will be no change in the result.

If the Observer and Judge Evaluator disagree with the results of the Judges, for example, the overall result after three rounds is 3:2 to red, however, both the Judge Evaluator and Observer have scored the bout to blue, the adjusted result in this instance would be 3:4 to blue. This is when the bout result would be announced a blue win, based on the evaluations by both the Observer and the Judge Evaluator.

In the event of a Bout Review, the Observer and Evaluator will determine the winner of the bout using all three scoring criteria:

• Number of quality blows on the target;
• Domination of the bout by technical and tactical superiority;
•  Competitiveness.

In the case of a Bout Review claiming that an IBA Technical and Competition Rule was violated by the Referee, the Observer and Referee Evaluator will determine the winner of the protested bout by reviewing the detail and finding:

•  A clear violation of a rule that warrants the reversal of the decision.

The review should clearly indicate which IBA rule(s) has/have been breached, in which round(s) the breach is alleged to have taken place and how the breach(es) affected the final result.

By providing a system where a bout can be challenged, IBA gives the athletes the confidence that a close or clear bout based on an incorrect split decision, or a mistake made by the Referee can be changed with confidence, both appropriately and in the correct way.

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