A born and raised local in Ho Chi Minh City, Tho developed a passion for boxing with successes to match. This rangy southpaw has progressed from being just plain awkward to an offensive weapon in very quick time. His improving skills over the last three years have been nothing short of remarkable. Wins at the previous two National Championships in Hanoi, and a resounding win last year at the Thailand Open 2018, have consolidated Tran Duc Tho as the MAN in the 70kg division.
So, you are watching a boxing match and it is clear that Boxer A is getting his faced punched in by the Boxer B. After many rounds, the final bell rings and you are 100% certain that the Boxer B had won the fight but suddenly judges award the win to the Boxer A and you are left thinking "what just happened?". This post will shed some light as to how this could easily happen.
At VSP, we have our own boxing gym (VSP Boxing) where boxers under company management are trained for professional matches. We also have our own boxing promotions company (VSP Promotions). We even have our own boxing event brand called Victory8. What I am about to tell you is something which happens behind the curtains that may help you understand why some boxing matches end up favoring a boxer who you are quite sure lost the match.
To fully understand what happens, you need to put yourself in the shoe of the Boxer and his/her manager. the manager generally thinks that if the boxer has an "unbeaten" record, it will help him go up the rank. This achieves two objectives. It can lead to the manager asking more money for the boxer to fight from the promoter. Secondly, the manager is hoping that a streak of victorious matches will allow the boxer to fight for the championship title which can be quite lucrative. Depending on the country/region, a regional championship title can earn 5~10,000 USD while world title can be anywhere from 50,000~1,000,000 dollars earning per fight depending on many factors which I will post another time. So, if you are the manager for the boxer, you would think your job is to try to get the boxer to fight an opponent whom you are quite confident can be beaten. (This often leads to a terrible quality fight because it is lopsided match).
Promoter (that's us) is the company that organizes and pays for everything and everyone. Here, "everyone" includes the boxers, referees, and the judges. Now, what happens when boxers are managed by a company instead of an individual? And what if that company happens to also be the "Promoter" of an event in which those boxers fight?
Let's think about a situation whereVSP has organized a boxing event in Vietnam between our Vietnamese fighters and Thai fighters. To make the scoring "fair", VSP flies in referees & judges (R&J) from Japan, China, and the Philippines. The promoter would be paying for their flight tickets, their fees, hotel, meals, as well as transportation. Lobbying can start even before the R&J arrive in Vietnam.
How about this: The promoter upgrades the flights of R&J to a business class and personally picks them up from the airport. The promoter then put them in a nice hotel with complementary drinks and takes them out to good restaurants. There, he talks about how wonderful some of the boxers are in the event (our boxers of course). The promoter never once said who the judges should vote for but as you can see, the R&J may have started to develop a certain bias.
Did you know that R&J are often part time jobs for many? Imagine you are one of the judges invited to come to Vietnam. You are treated very well, paid well, and even taken around by the promoter for shopping. You know that some of the boxers in the event are managed by the promoter. Now, let's say the fight was a close fight, who would you favor? If you voted against the promoter's boxer, maybe you won't be invited in the next event. Perhaps your professionalism would be so solid that none of these treatments would affect your judgement but would you be able to say the same for all of your peers?
At VSP, we don't believe in setting up our boxers to win in a match. How would a boxer improve if he is fighting an opponent worse than him all the time? We think this is a remanent of the old ways. Instead, we match our fighters such that the spectators would enjoy watching! What is the point of putting up boring shit fights that nobody wants to watch? We tell all our boxers, "It is not our job to make you win. It is our job to give you worthy challengers that will push yourself to be better" The boxing world need to change and embrace a new paradigm where the focus should be putting up fights that are 50:50 and that leads to exciting fights that viewers can appreciate and thus drive more following.
Let's change the old ways and make Boxing Great Again!
VSP PRO 10 boxers being part of history and putting ink on their fight posters.
Who knows who will be the next Vietnam champion - maybe he is in this photo even !
Don't forget - next event is Saturday December 23rd and it will be the biggest show of the year, si don't miss it!
And if you want to fight in 2024 - we want to hear from you. Just click the link below :
#vietnamboxingorganization #vspboxing #Webthethao #vsppro #quickom #boxingvietnam #VSPPromotions #vbo
When you're talking boxing, you're talking tough and Mexican in the same breath !
So Vietnam's Tran Van Thao aka "the Trigger", despite a ring absence of more than a year, wasn't looking for anything easy when he chose Mexican Kenbun Torres as his opponent.
As you can see, both boys were SHREDDED and turned up in DEMON shape at the weigh-in, and this fight lived up to all the hype.
Great job boys !
Tran Van Thao will be back in the ring in January, on a huge card that will include Genesis Servania and another top
Philippines boxer (soon to be announced) at the Paradise City in Incheon Korea.
Vietnam
will like have another representative in the form of the "Hanoi Hitman" Nguyễn Văn Hải, and also a recent visitor from Botswana
Moabi Ngaka is rumoured for possible inclusion.
Watch the full fight here : https://youtu.be/JFyFGS8juow?si=kBNMrmYQVIKIMjMW
Nguyễn Hoàng Việt bước vào màn so tài ở hạng cân 57kg với ưu thế hoàn toàn vượt trội trước đối thủ Nguyễn Huỳnh Triết. Những tổ hợp đòn 1-2 chính xác cùng lối di chuyển thông minh giúp Hoàng Việt đánh bại đối thủ với tỉ số 40-36, 40-36, 40-36. Chiến thắng đầu tiên cho Nguyễn Hoàng Việt ở sàn Boxing chuyên nghiệp VSP Pro.
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
Phạm Hữu Thương - tay đấm từ Cocky Buffalo đã có một thế trận hoàn toàn áp đảo trước Nguyễn Đình Phong Quân ở hạng cân 52kg. Kinh nghiệm của võ sĩ đã có 5 trận đấu chuyên nghiệp giúp Phạm Hữu Thương giành chiến thắng knockout kĩ thuật (TKO) ở 1 phút 35 giây hiệp 3.
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
Trận đấu có chênh lệch thể trạng lớn nhất tại VSP Pro 10, Nguyễn Tuấn Kiệt với những pha ra đòn chủ động và chính xác đã khiến đối thủ Lê Ngọc Minh Khôi gặp vô vàn khó khăn. Sang hiệp 2, Tuấn Kiệt gặp một chấn thương nhẹ ở vai, dù vậy, anh vẫn tạo được thế trận áp đảo để giành chiến thắng knockout kĩ thuật (TKO) ở 1 phút 39 giây ở hiệp đấu thứ tư.
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
Tấn Thành với kinh nghiệm và thể hình tốt hơn đã nhanh chóng tạo ra khác biệt trước Tuấn Vũ. Lối ra đòn đa dạng của Tấn Thành giúp anh ghi điểm tốt hơn và đã có những khoảnh khắc tưởng như tay đấm này có chiến thắng knockout.
Trong khi đó dù cũng có một số đòn trúng đích nhưng rõ ràng lối đánh của Tuấn Vũ còn hạn chế kinh nghiệm. Chiến thắng bằng tính điểm đồng thuận cho Tấn Thành hoàn toàn xứng đáng.
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
Trận đấu vô cùng gay cấn khi Hồ Minh Chiều (MMA Sài Gòn) sử dụng lối đánh áp sát tấn công triệt để lên Trương Ngô Gia Huy (CLB Boxing TP. Hồ Chí Minh). Các phương án tấn công không ngừng nghỉ liên tục được tung ra khiến Gia Huy gặp rất nhiều khó khăn. Với tỉ số 39-37, 40-36, 39-37, Hồ Minh Chiều đã giành chiến thắng đầu tiên tại VSP Pro.
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
Trận đấu cuối cùng ở hạng cân 49kg chứng kiến hai võ sĩ có kĩ thuật chuyên môn rất cao. Trần Minh Công và Hồ Nhật Sang đã mang tới một màn trình diễn chất lượng với kỹ thuật rất tốt. Sau 4 hiệp đấu, cả hai nhận kết quả hòa trong màn ra mắt võ đài chuyên nghiệp với tỉ số 38-38, 38-38, 37-39 (hòa đồng thuận).
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
Được đánh giá cao hơn nhưng Phan Thanh Kính lại gặp nhiều khó khăn trước đối thủ Lý Minh Toàn. 2 hiệp đầu tiên bất ngờ chứng kiến Minh Toàn thi đấu hiệu quả, thậm chí anh đã khiến phần mi mắt của Thank Kính bị rách chảy máu.
Ở 2 hiệp sau đó chứng kiến nỗ lực vùng lên của Thanh Kính nhưng chiến thắng sau 4 hiệp đấu gay cấn cuối cùng thuộc về võ sĩ Lý Minh Toàn với tỉ số 38-37, 37-38, 38-37.
#VSPBoxing #Webthethao #boxing #quyenanh
I have been asked this question many times and you will be surprised to find that most people (even folks from the Boxing industry) don't really understand it.
There is the technical definition between the two sports such as differences in the rules but that is a very shallow and limited understanding of the sport.
Fundamentally, amateur sports focus on finding the best athletes to represent the city, province, and finally the nation at various international tournaments for the glory of the country the athletes represent. This is a very important role which national Federations plays. The Federation can decide whatever it sees fit to devise local tournament rules and determine winners based on it's own standards since they are the sole power in the amateur sport they represent in that country. International community has no saying in the process of selecting top athletes to represent the country by each Federations but share same rules when competing in international tournaments such as ASIAD, OLYMPICS, SEA GAMES etc.
Professional sports however has a very different goal. It is all about commercial benefits to the organizer and the athletes participating in the event. It has no interest in finding the best boxer but rather focuses on what organizers can "sell" to the public and sponsors to watch. There are no international tournaments such as SEA Games, Asian Games, or the Olympics. In professional boxing, all matches are one single event and there is no medals or 2nd place award. There is simply a winner and a looser.
Professional Boxing is based on a global ranking system to determine if one boxer is "better" than another, and this has a big impact on the money that athletes can demand from the organizer for participating in an event. (Generally, if a fighter have had more fights in the past with many wins, they can demand more money because more people would likely know the boxer and thus it is easier for the organizer to market the event.) In this regard, the international community had to agree in using a common database that records such ranking. One of such platforms where you can find combat history of athletes is called BoxRec. It is a private website that has managed to invest in collecting most fight results around the world which is used as the first place to look when researching about a boxer.
Because of the global ranking, a boxing match cannot be called professional boxing simply because it applied professional rules. It also cannot be called as professional boxing by a national Federation or even by a government alone. For a boxing match to be accepted as "professional boxing", it must be recognized by international organizations as meeting certain standards, procedures, and paperwork. Otherwise, you can have any organizations claiming to have "local authority" to declare results of boxing matches that may not be fair and transparent. The professional boxing community has fought off countless attempts by various organizations claiming have "authority" to try and insert the results of matches that do not meet required standards.
Now who are these "international organizations" in professional boxing?
Most people think they are WBO, WBC, IBF, WBA. Many also wrongly think that above organizations are equivalent to IOC or FIFA but they are not. They are all private organizations that have been successful at marketing their brands around the world. There are over 65 of such companies but WBO, WBA, IBF, WBA are the biggest. Each of them have their own rules and criteria as to who can fight for their belt. They make money from the organizer (called "promoter" in boxing) who arranges events involving their brand. In any boxing event, they work with the organizer to witness and manage the fight involving their brand only.
Commissions are organizations that understand the requirements of being accepted as a "professional boxing" and act as an auditor to "supervise" a boxing event which are non-title fights. Almost all professional boxing commissions in the world are private organizations except for USA and the Philippines. Even in those countries, amateur boxing is separately managed from professional boxing since mixing amateur and professional sports often lead to corruption.
Commissions have commercial agreements with other commissions after ensuring that they are mutually satisfied with the quality and the integrity of the supervision (audit) of a boxing match which may involve boxers under their management. Each country can have multiple commissions. Korea has over 5 professional boxing commissions. Japan had 2 commissions at one time but now has one private commission. As long as a boxing match meets a certain criteria, the international community will accept it as being a "professional boxing match" and record the result.
In Vietnam, only VBO is accepted as having met international standard by other private commissions in Japan, China, Korea, Philippines and also Boxrec. This does not mean VBO is the licensing authority for a boxing event nor an exclusive organization for boxing in Vietnam. VBO works with any promoters who is licensed by the government to organize a boxing event to provide consultancy, audit, and boxing management to meet a certain standards that are recognized by boxing organizations which VBO has commercial agreements with. Only then, the boxing match is recognized as being a "Professional Boxing" match by the the international community.
It is important to note that if a boxing match is supervised by an organization or even government that the international community does not recognize as having a certain knowledge and standard, it will not be recorded as Professional Boxing no matter what the local organization claim it to be.
Recently, Vietnam Boxing Federation (VBF) has been trying to disrupt legally licensed boxing events claiming to be the sole authority to approve professional boxing in Vietnam. It is important to note that they have charged promoters in the past over USD 10,000 dollars for "sanctioning fee" and demanded various perks such as free rooms and flight tickets for their guests. They used amateur scoring system and ultimately had no recognition by international community involved in professional boxing. For these reasons and many more, all the professional boxing events they supervised in the past were not recognized by major commissions and boxing organizations such as BoxRec. In contrast, VBO provides its services for free to all promoters as a sponsorship.
Another reason why VBF is rejected by the professional boxing community is because some senior executives of VBF are also gym owners, managers of boxers, and also a promoter that competes with other organizers of professional boxing in the market. Clear conflict of interest is one thing but they haved used their authority to send various government departments to intimidate and try to disrupt boxing events by all other organizers.
So far, VBF has yet to supervise one single professional boxing event listed on BoxRec. In 2023, there were 2 events done by SSC. The owner of SSC is also the Vice President of HBF and President of VBF. The promoter of the event, Shadow Entertainment, is partly owned by the President of VBF.
Rather than just repeating an empty slogan that VBF is the sole authority, it is important for them to first act as a responsible organization by establishing a clear rules of professional boxing for Vietnam, and also establish working agreements with various professional organizations around the world so their supervision of a professional boxing match is accepted as credible and transparent.
In comparison, VBO does not have any boxers under contractual management and certianly don't charge any fees of any kind to boxers. It has sponsored over 13 events in 2023 with combination of free services to organizers, gloves, hand wraps, seminars, fighter purses, flight tickets, hotel, and meals. The result is that VBO has produced over 80% of new professional boxers in Vietnam including 100% of all female boxers. With over 2bil VND in sponsorship, it is unlikely VBO is out to collect money from boxers they are paying and supporting in the first place as claimed by VBF.
VBO does not have any form of agreements with WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC or any other such organizations. Those are commercial arrangements with the organizer/promoters.
"Sanctioning" is not a legal word. It means following a certain standards for a match to be recognized by the Sanctioning organization. For WBO title fights, WBO will be the Sanctioning organization for their brand and VBO does not get involved in that.
Function of a commission is to protect safety and welfare of boxers rather than showcasing their authority or titles guven by higher powers. It is important that any organization claiming to be the authority first demonstrate their capability before asking for the acceptance of their competence.
During the WBO Global event at the Grand Ho Tram, another historic event took place. Vietnam Boxing Organization signed a cooperation agreement with Korea Boxing Federation (KBF). The agreement focuses around the technology transfer of professional boxing management system developed by VBO.
Chairman Lee of KBF said "History of professional boxing in Korea is over 80 years but VBO from Vietnam has managed to develop a system that is far better than what is being used in Korea. I have never seen such an advanced system for boxing like the one developed by VBO."
The system developed by VBO streamlines documentation process required in supervising a fight by more than 98%, saving countless hours by a commission using the system. What usually takes days to prepare can be done in less than an hour.
NOTE: Unlike in Vietnam, most of the countries around the world allows private organizations to use "Federation", "Association", or "Commission" in their names. KBF is a private organization as are most professional boxing commissions around the world.
Things about to get serious in Vũng Tàu tonight when boxers from 10 countries descend upon the shores of The Grand Ho Tram.
Vietnam will be represented Thai Hoang Huy and the legendary Tran Van Thao at the big show which will feature the WBO Global Title fight as it's main event.
"The Trigger" Tran Van Thao brought the big drama show to The Grand Ho Tram today, showing attitude in a feisty face off with granite Mexican Kenbun Torres.
Six great fights are scheduled for Ho Tram tomorrow night, with the highlight being a WBO Global title contest.
Vietnam's Thai Hoàng Huy will be the other home team representative, and he battles Botswana former amateur star Moabi Ngaka.
VBO will preside over a huge international card to be held in Vũng Tàu tomorrow night.
"The VBO will regulate the event to help ensure the safety of all fighters, and to ensure that bouts are conducted and scored in a professional manner" as was explained by Dr. Lim Song at today's rules meeting.
Ten countries will take part in Saturday's event, with the main bout being a WBO Global Title.
#vietnamboxingorganization #vbo #cockybuffalo #Intercontinentalgrandhotram #thegrandhotram
Tran Van Thao and Thai Hoang Huy will fly the Vietnam flag at this Saturday night's big international show at The Grand Ho Tram Resort and Casino.
The "Trigger" Thao resumes from more than a year out of the ring, and takes on gritty Mexican Kenbun Torres (12-4)
Thai Hoang Huy only debuted in early 2023, and has already amassed 4 wins, but has a big task against a hot opponent from Botswana. He meets Moabi "the Eagle" Ngaka - a two time junior gold medal winner at amateur before turning pro, and now a WBF title holder in Africa.
The international event is headlined by a WBO title match, and will be supervised by Vietnam Boxing Organization.
The action takes place in Vũng Tàu from 6pm this Saturday November 18th.
#vietnamboxingorganization #cockybuffalo #thegrandhotram #VBO #Intercontinentalgrandhotram