Competitors wear gloves. Head protection was used in men’s competition until March 2016, before it was removed by the Australian Boxing Council (ABC) due to a higher concussion rate with Head Protection. However, women’s boxing will continue with Head Protection, after the ABC announced that they did not have enough data to decide if there was higher risk of concussion in women.

Elite boxing still advocates the use of head protection and believe a lot of the research undertaken unproven. For instance, we know that head protection reduces the risks of cuts in tournament contests.

A referee monitors the fight to ensure that competitors use only legal blows (a belt worn over the torso represents the lower limit of punches – any boxer repeatedly landing “low blows” is disqualified). Referees also ensure that the boxers don’t use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from swinging (if this occurs, the referee separates the opponents and orders them to continue boxing. Repeated holding can result in a boxer being penalised, or ultimately, disqualified). Referees will stop the bout if a boxer is seriously injured, or if one boxer is significantly dominating the other.[2] Bouts which end this way may be noted as “RSC” (referee stops contest), RSCI (referee stops contest due to injury), RSCH (hard blows to the head), or KO (boxer out for ten seconds).