ESSEX ABA chairman Terry Dainty, who has trained more than 7,000 boxers in his 50-odd year involvement with the sport, believes that changes in the sport are for the good of boxing.

He says removing the requirement for elite boxers (at novice, intermediate or open level) to wear headguards has been welcomed by coaches, trainers and pugilists.

Dainty – who is coach and secretary at Canvey ABC – said that the new rule would be used at the Essex Senior contest to be held on March 8.

And he and his fighters were looking forward to seeing the best bouts without headguards, which he said were brought in as a safety feature nearly 30 years ago.

“It’s right that headguards stay in for the schoolboys, women and the juniors, but for the elite boxers this decision is a good one.

And as one of the most respected officials in Essex, Dainty said that the new scoring system was a positive move too.

“Over the years we’ve been through systems which have used clickers, calculators and computers to do the scoring. And these have led to – even at the very highest level – some pretty terrible decisions in boxing.

“With the new system there will be five judges who must score a winner for each round and two of the scores will be blindly discarded.

“From a judges and boxer’s point of view it’s like returning to the way scoring used to be and I know that the best boxers want it this way.”

Dainty said he spoke to Canvey ABC’s reigning Eastern Counties ABA champion Chris Goddard, 22 about the change.

“Chris said that he was looking forward to the changes and he’s somebody who got all the way through to a national quarter final last year,” he added.