If boxing gives you brain damage why are all current fighters and recently retired boxers okay?

Question

so does that mean that oscar de la hoya and floyd mayweather and and antonio tarver miguel cotto bernard hopkins winky wright etc. will suffer the consequences later on in life or have proper measures been taken to prevent this?

Ali retired a while ago and apparently his problems is parkinsons which i heard has nothing to do with boxing.

Answer 1

Are they? look at Ali, or find some interviews of Holyfield in the beginning of his career, and towards the end and make a comparison. Those are just the ones we know. what about the thousands of boxers who get their brain scrambled that we don't hear of. They probably have more damage then the champs.

Answer 2

Riddick Bowe, Evander Holyfield, Arturo Gatti, James Toney, etc. Muhammad Ali WAS a current fighter when he was all messed up. He lost to both Holmes then Berbick in his "come back" and had a slur and stammer.

Courtiousy of www.wikipedia.com-

"It should be noted that knocking a person unconscious or even causing concussion may cause some permanent brain damage.[14] Furthermore, there is no clear division between the force required to knock out a human and an amount of force which will kill them.

More than 350 amateur and professional boxers have been killed in the ring since 1945;[citation needed] for example, Duk Koo Kim who on November 13, 1982 held a fight with Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini which led to Duk's death five days later.

In 1983, The Journal of the American Medical Association called for a ban on boxing. The editor, Dr. George Lundberg, called boxing an "obscenity" that "should not be sanctioned by any civilized society." Since then, the American Neurological Association, American Academy of Neurology and British, Canadian and Australian Medical Associations have also wanted to abolish the sport.[citation needed]

Many support the ban because it seems that causing injury to another athlete is the goal of the sport. Dr. Bill O'Neill, boxing spokesman for the British Medical Association, has supported the BMA's proposed ban on boxing: "It is the only sport where the intention is to inflict serious injury on your opponent, and we feel that we must have a total ban on boxing."[15] In 2007, one study of amateur boxers showed that protective headgear did not prevent brain damage.[16], and another found that amateur boxers faced a high risk of brain damage[17].

Professional boxing is forbidden in Norway, Iceland, Cuba, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.[citation needed]"

Point is, your brain is NOT meant to be shook too many times. You can get KOed and be fine, but you can also be KOed once and never be the same again. Your definition of "brain damage" is something I am unfamiliar with. You say ALL current fighters and recently retired boxers are OK? What, are they "OK" until they involuntarily crap themselves? The fighters you named are fairly safe. De La Hoya is fine and almost out of fighting. Floyd, ha, when has he ever been hit? Tarver started his career very late and is in his late 30's, so he should be OK. Cotto is too young to tell at this point. Hopkins is slurry right now, he has brain damage and needs to stop now (in my opinion). Wright, again, he never really gets hit. That sport hurts ALOT of people. The thing is, most of the people who get bad brains from boxing are the journeymen fighters... so we don't hear about them so much. And they don't have to take on a battery of tests, because they are not high profile so nobody will notice. Apparently you don't nor do most... they get swept "under the rug".

Answer 3

It is possible to suffer brain damage but it doesn't mean you actually will. It's just that the constant blow to the head in boxing stacks the odds against a boxer coming out without a scratch. Which is why boxing is now heavily regulated and referees are more alert to stopping fights where a boxer might be in danger of getting his brain pounded to mush. Ali for example used to fight in 25 and 20 round matches and in his later years wasn't as mobile and took a lot of shots to the head. The boxers you mentioned above were marquee fighters and fought in an era and country where a boxer's safety was constantly monitored during a match and the rounds reduced to 15, so they are the luckier ones. Julio Cesar Chavez on the other hand took a lot of punishment in his days and might feel some of the effects today., although last time I saw him on TV, he still looked like he could whip some young upstart's butt. But in other countries, damage to the brain and sometimes even death still occur, especially in third world countries where standards are not so high.

Answer 4

The onset of neurological injuries may take years to manifest, and it is a risk that fighters have long accepted.

Also, to clarify the statements made about Ali: He does not have Parkinson's disease. True Parkinson's disease has an unknown cause; but there are neurological conditions that display the same symptoms, but have a known or suspected cause. These conditions are classified as Parkinson syndromes. The typical causes are toxins, repeated head trauma, brain tumors, other neurological conditions, drug induced, etc.

If you listen to the current media, they now make a point of saying "boxer-induced" or "pugilistic" or "syndrome" when referring to his type of Parkinson's. This wasn't always done in the past. So, his condition is widely considered related to his boxing career.

Answer 5

I can't speak with certainty but it seems that the heavyweights seem to suffer more brain damage. Riddick Bowe is a good example of too many blows to the head. In the interviews he has done lately his speech is barely comprehensible. Boxing commissions have taken steps to bar fighters in their states but some are more lenient than others. If boxers can't fight in the US most travel overseas where the rules are more relaxed. It is a shame because most of the punishment comes late in their careers when they are well past their prime.Medical studies have suggested that there is a correlation between constant blows to the head and brain damage that boxers suffer.

Answer 6

The art of boxing has come a long way. Today's boxers have more safety features than older fighters. They do not take the battering that used to happen because the referee steps in more often. They have less rounds to box, the medical care is greater than it was before and the boxers are better trained.
Even with these upgrades, there's no gurantee that today's boxers will come out unharmed. Time will tell how much brain damage will have occured due to this type of sport.

Answer 7

Its a cumlative effect.

It also depends on their fighting style and how many times they were hit in the head.

Think of it as getting a whole lot of mini concusions.

It is also more pronounced in the heavier weight class's.

They have more force behind their punch's and can cause more damage.

If you look at ex heavey weights you can compare.

George Foreman - he was so dominate before the Ali fight, he hardly ever took punishment besides the Frasier fight. So he doesn't show signs of damage.

Joe Frasier - he fought when the heavey weight division had alot of good fighters, ali, norton, etc.. he had alot of tough fights. If you see him being interviewed now, you can tell there has been damage.

Ken Holmes - again, he had alot of tough fights, and the damage shows when he is interviewed.

Ali - you can not really tell with him, because he has non boxing medicial problems.

There really are no proper measures to prevent it.

They do now pay more attention to fighters health after fights.

And have mandatory no fight times after being knocked out.

Answer 8

All those guys you listed have good defensive skills and dont take alot of punches. Have you heard current fighters James Toney, Evander Holyfield or Arturo Gatti speak lately? How about Jake LaMotta or Ali? Ali can't even speak anymore. How about trainer Freddie Roach? He has parkinsons like ALi due to all the trauma his brain took as a fighter. Enough said.

Ali's problems have everything to do with boxing, he has parkinsons because his brain recieved massive amounts of trauma over the legth his career.

Answer 9

Some fighters take punches better than others, its just how they are built. A good example is Julio Ceaser Chavez, he seems fine. Then look at Meldrick Taylor, he had no where near as many fights as Chavez did, but he has substantial brain damage and slurred speech.

Answer 10

Freddie Roach Brain Damage