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So they can now show up hydrated like Floyd does. Instead of losing so much weight they have the choice: Show up at a weight you know you will be healthier at or risk dying...
It's up to the fighter to show up healthy. If he is dehydrated....f*** him...his fault. If enough fighters are affected, instead of changing the rule back, keep it and it will force the fighter to be honest with his weight or it is on him.
I have a thread about it that you can look over some info I suggest and there is a link from the Doctor (red hair women) about why we should go back to same day weigh-ins...among other rules.Last edited by Benny Leonard; 04-24-2009, 03:35 AM.Comment
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Boxer injured in 2000 fight sues Gatti
Gamache sustained brain damage, says opponent weighed too much in ring
NEW YORK - A former boxer who says he sustained permanent brain damage in a 2000 bout against Arturo Gatti is now suing, saying Gatti weighed too much for the fight.
Joey Gamache, 39, and his wife filed a lawsuit in federal court Feb. 21 alleging breach of contract over the Feb. 26, 2000 bout at Madison Square Garden. Gatti won the fight.
By contract, both fighters had to weigh 141 pounds by at least eight hours before the bout started, according to the suit filed by lawyer Keith Sullivan. Gatti made weight the day before the fight, but the suit said his weight was “falsely represented” then and that he was actually 160 pounds by the time he got into the ring the next day.
Gatti overwhelmed Gamache in the first round and the fight was stopped 20 seconds into Round Two, but Gamache was hospitalized for two days afterward, the suit said.
“As a result of the devastating punishment inflicted by the severely overweight defendant ... (Gamache) has sustained severe and permanent neurological damages and injuries, which caused him to end his career as a professional boxer,” according to the suit.
Gamache, who suffers from migraine headaches he attributes to the beating, now works as a boxing trainer at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn.
“Every day is a battle,” Sullivan said Thursday. “He has great difficulty getting past these migraine headaches and he takes a ****tail of medications to get through it.”
Gamache has a separate complaint pending before the state Court of Claims against the New York State Athletic Commission over the administration of the weigh-in, Sullivan said.
Donald Tremblay, spokesman for Bloomfield, N.J.-based Main Events, Gatti’s promoter, said the company had not been served with the complaint and wouldn’t comment on its claims.
A breach-of-contract suit filed by Gamache over the fight was voluntarily withdrawn by him in August 2004, with the endorsement of U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, according to Tremblay.
Tremblay said he didn’t know what Gatti’s weight was by the time the fight began.
“I don’t know how much weight he gained afterward. That was when Arturo was really working hard to make weight. How much he actually gained, I don’t know. He worked hard to get down and make the weight. After that, when you replenish with liquids you’re going to gain some weight back. Some guys gain more than others.”Comment
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Yes, I know...but we still have the risk of Gatti-Gamache. Clottey comes in at 170, or at least he did for Chico. Not sure what Cotto comes in at but if he is out-weighed by a lot, how is that fair?
I would rather place the risk on the fighters instead of having one fighter be honest about the weight and the other, way over-board. You should force the fighters to want to be healthy and if they don't want to follow the "new" rule in place...that is on them and that is their risk. If they get messed up once, do you think they will do it again? If so, that's on them.
The key is to put a "cap" on how much weight you can gain. I would say you have to make weight at the exact division weight but there were problems with this with possible cancelations if you don't make weight. So I extended it with limitations and rules.
Fighters take risks no matter what. If they don't show up healthy for a fight, that's on them.
When following the current routine, which is to dehydrate for the scales and then rehydrate for fight-time, I think it also forces fighters to follow suit. So if one guy is doing it, the other guy may feel the need to do it as well because he may be at an unfair advantage.
So the object now would be to reverse that and have a fighter show up healthy. If one fighter is healthy by fight-time because he is following the new method and the other refuses, the second fighter will now most likely be at a disadvantage showing up unhealthy...thus risking a loss. The object is not to lose. If he dies, well, that's on him. He will serve as a lesson to the rest.Last edited by Benny Leonard; 04-24-2009, 04:05 AM.Comment
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