do you worry about dementia pugilistica?

[ironmike2008]

for those of you serious about your boxing careers, do you worry about taking so many blows to the head and what effect it could have later on?

[mishka80]

by the time i'm 70 years old+

I could care less if I had any type of dementia.

There are risks in every sport, so as of now...I dont really worry about it.

[Fidayeen]

if i was u i would be more worried about heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke,...

[Squirrel]

I think the only people to really worry should be top class fighters in the HW division, and even then only if they have prolonged/intense careers, and/or absolute wars eg. Bowe vs Holyfield x3.

I think fighters in lower weight catagories are a LOT safer, especially from dementia. Notable incidents have occurred though; McClellan, Watson etc. Correct me if i'm wrong but they were sheer bad luck, though, right? that could have happened to anyone I think. I may be wrong tho.

[ScottDBA]

It's not just the heavyweights. Look at Meldrick Taylor for example.

It's really a concern for guys that get knocked out a lot, or guys that have been boxing since a very young age and have been taking shots to the head every day for years and years.

I only started training around six months ago when I was 21. I had my first fight earlier today and I didn't take a single solid shot, a couple grazing ones on my headgear (the fight only lasted 45 seconds). In sparring I've taken some hard shots, but only one that actually rocked me and made my vision blurry for a couple seconds.

I don't think or worry about it at all now, but down the road there may come a time when after I suffer a couple knockouts I have to decide if I want to continue boxing and risk doing permanent damage. Hopefully I never get knocked out though *fingers crossed*

[BrooklynBomber]

Not anymore.

Too late.

[KostyaTszyu44]

I think the only people to really worry should be top class fighters in the HW division, and even then only if they have prolonged/intense careers, and/or absolute wars eg. Bowe vs Holyfield x3.

I think fighters in lower weight catagories are a LOT safer, especially from dementia. Notable incidents have occurred though; McClellan, Watson etc. Correct me if i'm wrong but they were sheer bad luck, though, right? that could have happened to anyone I think. I may be wrong tho.

think again dude, most of the deaths and injuries in boxing occur below lightweight

[JulioCesaChavez]

I think the only people to really worry should be top class fighters in the HW division, and even then only if they have prolonged/intense careers, and/or absolute wars eg. Bowe vs Holyfield x3.

I think fighters in lower weight catagories are a LOT safer, especially from dementia. Notable incidents have occurred though; McClellan, Watson etc. Correct me if i'm wrong but they were sheer bad luck, though, right? that could have happened to anyone I think. I may be wrong tho.

Yes you are. The lower divisions have higher volumes of punches, and being smacked by a smaller guy is probably cancelled out by fact that your resistance is lower anyway. I have heard of more accidents happening to the smaller guys to be honest.

On another note, footballers are more likely to get pugilistica dementia than boxers. Some tests were carreied out at Loughborough University, and they said the repeated practice of headers in training caused more damage than sparring. Like sparring, they cannot train without headers though! TBH set peices make me more dizzy than sparring ever has. Office workers and professionals get RSI. Pedestrians get knocked over, motorists have collisions and NATO soldiers die like flies in Afghanistan. That's life.