Matchmaking and the Bout Card

Pairing Fighters

Manage → Bouts, on your own event. Pick a fighter from the list of unmatched entries, and the rest of the list re-orders around them — closest declared weight first. Choose an opponent, press Pair, and the bout goes on the end of the card.

You can reorder bouts, swap a fighter between the red and blue corners, unpair a match you have changed your mind about, and set rounds and a round length on each bout. There is a note field on every bout that only you can see.

Only Approved Entries Can Be Matched

An entry has to be approved on Manage before it can be paired. If your pool looks empty, that is usually why, and the screen says so with a link to your review queue.

Pairing somebody is the strongest thing this site says about a competitor, so it asks you to have said yes to them first.

The Order Is Not a Recommendation

The list is sorted by how close two declared weights are, as a percentage of the lighter fighter — so a five pound gap ranks differently at 112 lb than it does at 220 lb. Both numbers are shown.

That is all it compares. BoutHost does not check eligibility, membership, medical standing, suspensions or age rules. It does not compare experience — there is no such field on this site. Nobody has stood on scales: every weight is what the fighter declared when they entered.

Nothing is paired automatically and nothing is pre-selected.

When It Asks You to Confirm

Some pairings need one extra click. If there is a wide weight gap, if a fighter is under 18 on the day of the event, if the two profiles give different genders, or if somebody has not declared a weight at all, the screen lists what it noticed and asks you to confirm.

It is never refusing the match. A catchweight two coaches have agreed is a normal thing to make, and this site has no way to know your sanctioning body's rules. The confirmation exists so nothing goes on the card by accident, not to stop you.

Releasing the Card

Everything you do here is private until you press Release the card. Then the bouts appear on your public event page, showing the bout number, both names and both declared weights — and nothing else. Your notes stay private.

After that, changes are live straight away. There is no second publish step. If you want to rework the card out of sight, take it down first and release it again when you are done.

Releasing does not email anybody. Telling your fighters is a separate step, so you can release the card, check it on your public page, and only then let people know.

Telling Your Fighters

Once the card is released and your event is published, press Notify fighters on the Bouts screen. It shows you how many people will hear from you before anything is sent.

• Everybody on the card is told who they are matched against, with a link to your event page.
• Every approved entry who is not on the card yet is told the card is out, and that you may still add bouts.
• Entries you have not reviewed yet are not told anything.

Each message arrives by email and as a notice in BoutHost. Neither includes a bout number, because the order changes whenever you move a bout, and an email cannot be taken back. Your event page always shows the current order.

The screen says when you last notified fighters. If you change the card afterwards, you can press it again.

If Somebody Withdraws

A fighter can withdraw at any time, including after you have matched them. Their bout is not deleted and it is not quietly re-matched: it stays on your screen with a note saying what happened, so you can pair the other fighter with somebody else.

That bout comes off the public page immediately, which leaves a gap in the numbering — bout 3 disappears and bout 4 is still bout 4. That is deliberate, so the number a fighter was given does not change under them.

You will also be told if somebody re-enters at a different weight after you matched them. The bout remembers what they declared at the time.

Printing It for the Night

Manage → Paperwork, or Print the card on the Bouts screen. It lays out the bout card, your roster and your officials for the printer, each on its own page, and every sheet says when it was produced. Anything that changes after that is not on it, so print again after a late withdrawal.

The bout card prints every bout — including one a withdrawal has taken off your public page, with the same note saying what happened — along with the rounds you set and your own notes. The roster lists everybody who entered, with the withdrawn and rejected under Not competing so you recognize them if they arrive, and Weighed and Checked in columns. Those print whatever you have recorded on the event's Weigh-in screen, and stay blank to write in otherwise. Nothing written on the paper itself is saved anywhere, so record weights and arrivals on that screen.

Each sheet also downloads as a spreadsheet file (CSV).