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Boxers, their families, and fans of the sport can breath a sigh of relief as the House killed the bill that would have created a Commission to further confuse the political climate that boxing functions in. By a margin of 233-190 the bill was squashed not by ********s who seem to complain over rights taken from anyone except boxers but by **********s, who are daily accused of wanting to limit civil rights. [details]
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Good article Rick!!!
I agree that fighters should not be descriminated against because of age. While I understand that commisions are doing this because they believe that it will be less at risk of an incident, I believe that they are barking up the wrong tree when excluding boxers soley because of age.
If they had not allowed George Foreman to comeback we would have missed out on a great boxing personality and some very interesting match-ups.
I do agree with the thorough physical examinations that the commisions make the older fighters go through, these examinations should not only include the older fighters but the younger fighters aswell.
Saftey is paramount in our sport. As a referee I do everything in my power to see that a man does not get seriously hurt in our sport. Ofcourse, things happen rather fast in the ring and incidents can occur no matter how conscious one may be of keeping the fighters safe.
Age should be no barrier when judging a fighters ability to be involved in a safe bout. If a man wants to fight and the examinations show no problem in him doing so, then the man should be allowed to fight.
Ofcourse, if the man is 55 years old and is looking to get on a card, he may have great difficulty finding a suitable opponent to box against. I find it funny that the commisions will not let a guy box another soley because of age, not wanting them to get over matched or hurt, but will allow an obviously over matched opponent of a younger age but obviously lesser credentials be beaten down to pad a record.
Ofcourse, I exclude Brad Wright and Michigans commision who have taken proper steps in avoiding obvious mismatches. I am certain that there are other commisions that run by similar standards and I applaud them for doing so.
A man in america has the right to strive for anything that his heart may desire. If he desires to fight at an older age then he should have the freedom to do so, assuming that he has passed thorough and comprehensive testing before he steps into the ring. If they want to avoid incidents they should first look at the level of their referees (which I believe are good), the level of the ring side medical team and more so the equality of the match up, not soley the age of the fighter.
Rockin'
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