Tweet
If you have never stepped into a professional ring to throw fists then you are unable to comprehend what those extra 9 minutes could mean to a fighters well being.
A good referee is always something that you want in fights. However, a referee can not see the tiny tears that might have begun to spill blood in a fighters brain, the hemorages nor when the 2 halves of the brain begin to seperate.
There are fighters who can withstand enormous amounts of punishment and be fine. But there are so many instances where a fighter has stepped into the ring shortly after a prior bout with his body or mind not mended. How could a referee or doctor have any knowledge of these injuries.
Cat scans are a good measure to try and avoid the tragedies, but they are only able to probe so deep. Alot of damage is not visible by cat scans alone.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A major breakthrough validating the long term effects of boxing did not occur until 1973, when a team of british researchers published a study that detailed the postumous examination of the brains of 15 boxers who had fought between 1900 and 1940 and had died in the past 16 years, between the ages of 57 and 91. The pathology reports were complimented
by interviews with relatives and friends aswell as written accounts, from which researchers discovered that most of the deceased boxers had developed speech difficulties and the drooling and tremors characteristics of Parkinsons syndrome, in these cases the symtems of a punch drunk fighters. Upon microscopic inspection of cerebal tissue, clearly all of the men had suffered serious brain damage. Additionally, researchers compared the nerve cells in the brains of former boxers with those of non-fighters who had died at similar ages and found that the former evidenced greater degeneration and loss. More over, three-fourths of the former boxers had openings in the membranous partition (septum) between the two halves of the brain, a condition that could easily lead to hemorrhaging; with in the control group, only 3 percent showed such a condition. Corsellis and his associates concluded that detection and prevention of brain damage in living subjects remained difficult because the condition did not simply result from an accumulation of blows; further, there was a danger that, at any moment and for some unknown reason, one or more blows could be fatal. Thus no head injury was ever to trivial to be safely ignored.
Jefferey T Sammons
----------------------------------------------------------------
15 rounds is not needed to prove who is the better boxer. That can be determined easily in the 36 minutes of fighting that we have today.
While technology has greatly improved our ability to detect and study the damage that occurs in the ring, we are only able to touch the tip of the ice berg when dealing with living subjects.
A cadavour can easily be disected and studied to determine the extent of any damage to the brain. The problem is that we can only see real physical evidence in dead people, not the living.
From my experience, acquantances and friends in the sport I have seen first hand the transformation from well speaking young man to the slurring words of the washed up fighter. You must remember that these images on the television that you are watching are indeed real people. For our enjoyment, they step into the ring and wage war, risking their lives every time that they do so. I say that we are doing them a favor by limiting the bouts to 12 rounds as it stands today. Another 9 minutes may tell us who has really, really trained hard for the bout. Aswell, the extra 9 minutes may tell us who has taken the SERIOUS beating as he lay unconcious on the canvas with doctors trying to revive him. I would hope that any fighter that has fallen from a blow would recover and continue on in his life unchanged. Letting the 9 minutes, taken from the 15 round fights, go is a step to better safety and public perception for our sport aswell as the well being of the fighters.
Rockin'
A good referee is always something that you want in fights. However, a referee can not see the tiny tears that might have begun to spill blood in a fighters brain, the hemorages nor when the 2 halves of the brain begin to seperate.
There are fighters who can withstand enormous amounts of punishment and be fine. But there are so many instances where a fighter has stepped into the ring shortly after a prior bout with his body or mind not mended. How could a referee or doctor have any knowledge of these injuries.
Cat scans are a good measure to try and avoid the tragedies, but they are only able to probe so deep. Alot of damage is not visible by cat scans alone.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A major breakthrough validating the long term effects of boxing did not occur until 1973, when a team of british researchers published a study that detailed the postumous examination of the brains of 15 boxers who had fought between 1900 and 1940 and had died in the past 16 years, between the ages of 57 and 91. The pathology reports were complimented
by interviews with relatives and friends aswell as written accounts, from which researchers discovered that most of the deceased boxers had developed speech difficulties and the drooling and tremors characteristics of Parkinsons syndrome, in these cases the symtems of a punch drunk fighters. Upon microscopic inspection of cerebal tissue, clearly all of the men had suffered serious brain damage. Additionally, researchers compared the nerve cells in the brains of former boxers with those of non-fighters who had died at similar ages and found that the former evidenced greater degeneration and loss. More over, three-fourths of the former boxers had openings in the membranous partition (septum) between the two halves of the brain, a condition that could easily lead to hemorrhaging; with in the control group, only 3 percent showed such a condition. Corsellis and his associates concluded that detection and prevention of brain damage in living subjects remained difficult because the condition did not simply result from an accumulation of blows; further, there was a danger that, at any moment and for some unknown reason, one or more blows could be fatal. Thus no head injury was ever to trivial to be safely ignored.
Jefferey T Sammons
----------------------------------------------------------------
15 rounds is not needed to prove who is the better boxer. That can be determined easily in the 36 minutes of fighting that we have today.
While technology has greatly improved our ability to detect and study the damage that occurs in the ring, we are only able to touch the tip of the ice berg when dealing with living subjects.
A cadavour can easily be disected and studied to determine the extent of any damage to the brain. The problem is that we can only see real physical evidence in dead people, not the living.
From my experience, acquantances and friends in the sport I have seen first hand the transformation from well speaking young man to the slurring words of the washed up fighter. You must remember that these images on the television that you are watching are indeed real people. For our enjoyment, they step into the ring and wage war, risking their lives every time that they do so. I say that we are doing them a favor by limiting the bouts to 12 rounds as it stands today. Another 9 minutes may tell us who has really, really trained hard for the bout. Aswell, the extra 9 minutes may tell us who has taken the SERIOUS beating as he lay unconcious on the canvas with doctors trying to revive him. I would hope that any fighter that has fallen from a blow would recover and continue on in his life unchanged. Letting the 9 minutes, taken from the 15 round fights, go is a step to better safety and public perception for our sport aswell as the well being of the fighters.
Rockin'
Comment