Boxing and Brain Damage

[MidnightSpecial]

Ok so this is a topic that has long plagued boxing.

In my honest opinion, i believe it certainly does not help the brain but to say every boxer becomes ignorant isnt true. Also boxing does not CAUSE parkinson's disease. It just helps bringing it about.

Most guys that are "punchy" werent the greatest of talkers to start with for example James Toney.

But there are those exceptions like Vargas.

Hell even Sweet Pea who is one of the best defensive fighters to live are punchy.

But then you have other guys like Lennox Lewis, Tyson, Holyfield, Hagler, Hearns, etc. That really never showed signs of slowed speech.

So what do you guys think...is it more about the boxer? or is it just who they are getting hit by?

[SplitSecond]

sweet pea also had about 500 amateur bouts

i dunno, i dont think the punch drunk thing affects everyone
and those guys that you posted(tyson, lennox, holyfield etc)

they do seem a little punchy
but i think the punch drunk thing comes from getting hit on the mouth too much to the point it kills some nerve and your left with a hanging lip(as you can see with these punchy guys) that you cant control

if you've ever had a dentist numb one half of your mouth to drill into a tooth or w/e you'll know the feeling

[Sox8055]

I agree I think it's just tthe boxer.

[-----------]

people confuse parkinsons syndrome with parkinsons disease.

They are not the same.

Ali has parkinsons syndrome, brought on by boxing.

[hugh grant]

MOst boxers are articulate when they speak now, that i almost think punch drunk is a cliche from a bygone era when boxers had 200 fights or so.

[MidnightSpecial]

people confuse parkinsons syndrome with parkinsons disease.

They are not the same.

Ali has parkinsons syndrome, brought on by boxing.

really? well after watching Muhammed and Larry i can see why.

Ill be honest i thought the guy had the disease

[VatoMulatto]

It's very individual. Anyways, boxing is a beautiful sport but at the same time it's also a very dangerous sport and taking punches to head is far from being healthy. I'm not surprised someone like Toney is punchy. Dude been in this game since forever and has taken a lot of punishment, especially during sparring.

Being punchy is not the only sign of brain damage. I'm sure there are several boxers who aren't punchdrunk but still have many problems that unless you know them personally it's pretty much impossible for the average person to notice.

[Eric Holder]

here's a link to an article that talks about progressive encephalopathy in boxing
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1974382/

an article from neurobiology discussing boxing, dementia, and alzheimers
http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow...ing_can.5.aspx

[MidnightSpecial]

now dementia is the one that more people have than is let on... since it is brought on by severe concussions.

Dementia is the scary one to me...thats the one that makes people kill themselves or family.

[JohnCIV6]

I think it's about the boxer. The type of boxer they are is part of it to. Someone like Gatti(RIP) got hit a lot. That could have very well affected him later in life.

Someone like Mayweather will not have any problems from boxing.

So I guess I do believe it comes down to being hit in the head over and over. There proving this with the NFL concussion studies. Im gonna go out on a limb and say being blatantly punched in the head over and over is worse then a football game, or two, or three, ec...