After Two Deaths Days Apart, Boxing Examines Its Risks

Headgear. Heavier/more padding in gloves. Addressing the weight loss issues. These will reduce knockdowns/knockouts, and fighter will have to focus more on the art of boxing rather than seeking the knockout.

I’ve read that bare knuckle boxing is safer than the gloves variety due to the lack of head shots. Perhaps it’s time to return to boxing’s roots and eliminate the gloves.

How many deaths have occurred in the history of Olympic Boxing or in amateur boxing associations that can lead to a being selected for the olympics? I suspect very few.Why are professional boxers—unlike tennis, basketball, Soccer players among other sports— not permitted to compete at the Olympics? Why are refs not required to end a fight when a boxer demonstrates all the criteria for acute concussion ? Why are profesional fighters, to use their proper title , nor required to wear helmet head protectors? Finally why are professional fighters revered for their “knockout” percentage if a knockout is certifiable evidence of acute brain injury? The answer to all these questions is the same. The end point sought by fans and fighters alike is to beat their opponent into unconsciousness if they can and—if not—to land more damaging blows to their opponent and “win on points”. One explanation is easy to understand. Fighting in a ring is gladiatorial combat. If it happens in an alley, it would be the crime of aggravated assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Curiously, long ago, Americans outlawed cock fights and dog fights. Perhaps it is time to impose on human fights in a ring rules that would allow it to be a regulated test of genuine athletic talent and not a legally sanction contest where brain damage is the goal.

Boxing should be put under federal control with a commissioner with full power and authority to rule over every aspect of the sport.

Seriously, we Americans allow an activity where the OBJECTIVE of two humans is to pummel the other to unconsciousness? While we cheer? How could this be moral? How should this be legal? How depraved are Americans? Make this illegal for God’s sake!

A sickening sport. Should absolutely be illegal. Along with so-called mixed marital arts. Both are sports whose only goal is to injure another person. What I find most offensive is how they are financially supported by ESPN. I suggest people boycott ESPN, and let them know why you dropped their channel. Also write your cable company and ask they drop ESPN until they stop showing and promoting these abominations. Just buy access to the sports you like, for example the MLB network. All the choices are out there now.

There is all kinds of talk about football and brain injuries, which is true. Here we have Boxing the object of the boxer is to knock your opponent out. In most fights a boxer will take about 50 hits to the head with no head gear, if not more. As in the past these fighters come from poverty, hoping to fight themselves out of it. Many of these boxers have blood in their urine day after the fight. At the end of the day the only winners are Promoters and the boxing game. The boxers never win. At the end of the day they carry the afflictions for the rest of their life.

How can a society that still practices brutal gladiatorial contests fain shock about mass shootings?

The problem in boxing continues to be the wild west nature of it. 50 competing state commissions which promoters/managers/fighters play off each other in order to cut corners in a way benefiting their fighters, and ultimately their bottom lines. As much as head injuries and weight cutting are dangers, the far more pervasive problem in boxing is abuse of performance enhancing drugs, which give boxers who can do lethal damage additional speed, power, and endurance. Other than reporter Thomas Hauser, no journalist has done an adequate job exploring how the state commissions and global sanctioning bodies like the WBA and IBF have failed to take tough action. The answer, of course, is national statutes being passed and a new national commission/regulatory body that can clean up the sport. How long will we allow the corruption to continue?

Boxing is a vile sport, men hurting each other to entertain, sometimes to death. Disgusting.

Bare-knuckled, it wouldn't be so dangerous because there would be no blows to the head (which break the hands of a bare-knuckled fighter). Lots more lacerations and blood, but much less brain damage and death.

A lot of fatalities and severe brain trauma could be avoided by stopping hopeless fights much earlier. Trainers should not consult their fighters as to whether or not they want to go on. It is the corner's job to protect their boxers. For example, despite Frazier's intense protests, Eddie Futch stopped the third fight with Ali after the 14th rd. Frazier barely talked with Eddie for a long while but at least Smokin Joe could still talk.

So making a living trying not to get punched too much has a down side? who knew?

Reforms to boxing—from unionization to rules limiting the number of blows to the head—have recently been suggested here: http://thesportdigest.com/2019/08/time-to-reform-the-not-so-sweet-science

I've always thought it strange that the United States, which forbids dog fights and cock fights, would allow two humans to enter a ring with the sole intention of beating each other to a state of unconsciousness.

Boxing and football are both very dangerous activities. Nothing they have done to prevent the physical harm to participants is stopping the damage. It should be illegal to profit from something knowing that is harmful to a person’s health and can permanently incapacitate or even kill the individual. At a minimum, like with tobacco there should be warnings everywhere that this product kills. It’s time to consider banning these two sports. We have banned asbestos because it kills people. We ban all kinds of drugs like marijuana that do far less physical harm than tobacco, boxing or football but we let wealthy individuals intentionally harm people to make entertainment and massive profits. Our society suffers from schizophrenia.

There are concussion protocols in all legitimate sports. Can anyone explain why boxing is not outlawed?

Our civilization has a profound love-hate relationship with violence and murder, and it is inconceivable how are are going to reconcile it. On the one hand we are all mourning this weeks latest mass shootings -- nothing more horrible. On the other hand we thrill to boxing, MMA fights, even staged fights like pro wrestling, violent video games, and the firehose of TV shows and movies about murder and mayhem! Isn't it ironic that right after the PBS Newshour, with thoughtful, concerned discussion about guns and violence, we are immediately shown an ad for Midsomer Murders! And how can any doctor with any sense of ethics attach himself or herself to the boxing industry and sit by while great "harm is done"? There are so many complicit actors here, it's hard to know where to start but with us, the viewing public.

Just watched the clip with "the delayed medical care"--the delay wasn't from having to hear the winner announced, it was from the lollygagging after the fighter dropped unconscious. How do they not have a backboard/stretcher ready to go for such an event?? Or someone who knows how to turn on the oxygen tank before (or even at all?) applying an oxygen non rebreather mask. Apparently emergency medical preparedness is something that needs to be added to their reform list if any of these fighters want any kind of improved outcome.

I box as a form of fitness, never box before (a female in my early 50’s) and I’m training with a retired pro boxer. I love it, I’m getting stronger and best of all losing weight as well. Now I’m starting to understand the sport and following it. For the first time I went to watch a competition at a high school two weeks ago and there was K.O. It was scary and I hope he is ok. It’s really a scary sport and the more and safe regulations the better. I also heard my trainer said once that some trainers pay(?) doctors not to issue a medical problem that might not allow a fighter to fight...they want the money he said . Stay safe and fight on fighters !

Boxing has a history of deaths as a result of punches. In the early days, there was no limit to the number of rounds a match could go. A contest only ended when a fighter either gave up, couldn't "come to scratch" or was knocked out. Deaths in the ring were common. After that, they were less common after many improvements but they still happened far too frequently. Many of the greats had at least one opponent to die during the course of their career. So today, the sport has gotten safer as far as ring deaths, and now the biggest issue, as with football, is head trauma causing mental decline -"punch drunk". Not an inconsiderable concern. Should boxing be banned? The ethical and logical side of me says yes. But as a fan who has seen many great fights - the "Thrilla' in Manilla" and the entire career of Sugar Ray Leonard come to mind - I would have to say, what a lose.

Boxing examines its risks. Hm. I should think the risks of beating someone until that person cannot stand up are obvious to anyone over the age of, say, 3. Boxing and boxers seem to accept this. The viewing public apparently does as well, although how anyone can not feel intense discomfort while watching this awful gladiatorial display is beyond me. Why are we now pretending that something can be done to mitigate the damage from this activity? It can't. The problem is the activity itself and the society that apparently clamors for it.

Who killed Davey Moore? How come he died and what's the reason for?

So far as I know, boxing is the only "sport" that has as its goal the causing of deliberate brain damage. Yes, you can win based on points but the coveted "KO" is the result of loss of function, often to the point of unconsciousness, due to the repeated impact of the brain inside the cranial cavity. American football is also dangerous, but at least the danger is a generally unwanted side-effect. A society that tolerates this type of "entertainment" is stretching things to call itself civilized.

Boxing is an activity that is only legal when tickets are sold or people are making money off of it. Do the same thing in a park and you'll get arrested. The entire goal of boxing is to cause the opponent to suffer a concussion. Why is it still allowed.

Can’t we finally admit that the brain cannot tolerate repeated sudden acceleration changes? It’s a dense and delicate mass inside a closed skull and sudden accelerations cause that mass to compress against the skull inflicting damage. This is not healthy. Sports that incorporate this dangerous activity should take steps to mitigate the effects and if not possible then the sports should be banned. The first step would be to add accelerometers to competitors heads to measure the degree and frequency of these dangerous accelerations. When, for example, will the NFL start monitoring players in this manner (in training and in game)? It would be more reliable than current system and produce concrete data for study.

If cutting weight through dehydration is that big of a risk, why not mandate that boxers get weighed twice daily for a week before each bout? The boxers would probably be happy not to have to cut weight.