2025 American Academy of Neurology Abstract Website

Objective:

In this study, we aim to determine whether the rates of knockouts (KO) and technical knockouts (TKO) differ between male and female boxers.

Background:

Due to concerns around safety, female boxers have shorter rounds (2min vs 3min) and less championship rounds (10 vs 12) than male boxers. This may affect the earning potential for female boxers. There is however a concern about increasing female risk of head injury with longer matches. At this point, it is unclear whether the current rules and regulations are equitable, or whether females and males have the same rates of KO/TKOs.

Design/Methods:

We collaborated with Boxrec.com, a well-maintained and comprehensive public online database, to extract match results from 237,238 professional matches between January 1^st 2014 and January 1^st 2024. We compared the rates of KO/TKO in female and male professional boxers.

Results:

Of 14,555 matches in females, 5% ended in KO and 24% in TKO (total 29% KO/TKO). Of 222,683 matches in males, 15% ended in KO and 32% in TKO (total 47% KO/TKO). Males incurred significantly more KO/TKOs (18% difference with 95% CI of 17.22-18.76, p<0.0001), but this difference fell to 1% when considering rates of KO/TKO per minute fought. On average KO/TKOs occurred in 2.68 rounds (5min 24sec, 5% per min) for females and 2.59 rounds (7min 48sec, 6% per min) for males.

Conclusions:

Male boxers are 1.6 times more likely to have a KO/TKO than female boxers in the same number of rounds, but when taking into account the difference round duration, the rates are about equal across sex. This suggests that if rounds were longer for females, rates KO/TKO would supersede males. These data should be considered when making rule and regulation changes for boxers.