How will a CTE test that can be done on an alive athlete change boxing?

[Eff Pandas]

There has been more talk of CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in football then anywhere else, but this seems like it will be a game charger in contact sports across the board more & more in the future & specifically when there is a test that can be used on living people (you currently can only prove a person had CTE after a person has died).

What impact will this test being around in 4 years or less have on boxing specifically? More guys retire sooner? More guys fight less? More guys get forced into retirement? Boxing gets altered somehow for fighters to sustain less brain damage? Less people getting into boxing? Less fights in general?

[The D3vil]

I've been thinking about this for years.

I think you're gonna see what you're seeing in football where guys are retiring at 28. Guys are gonna get in and get out once they get a few million dollar fights, which will suck.

But a lot of guys won't care and will continue to fight.

I mean, look at the X-Games where guys are doing sports that can literally kill them on the side of a mountain or when a snowmobile falls on them and yet they still sign up to play it.

So, it will change the sport, but not as much as some people will think. People still bullfight, knowing that guys get gored to death regularly. That sport will end because people are concerned with the animals before it ends because people are scared for their own health.

There will always be people who love danger.

[Scipio2009]

Fighters will continue to fight, but having a live CTE test would give the commissions another tool to use to revoke a fighter's license early.

[Eff Pandas]

I've been thinking about this for years.

I think you're gonna see what you're seeing in football where guys are retiring at 28. Guys are gonna get in and get out once they get a few million dollar fights, which will suck.

But a lot of guys won't care and will continue to fight.

I mean, look at the X-Games where guys are doing sports that can literally kill them on the side of a mountain or when a snowmobile falls on them and yet they still sign up to play it.

So, it will change the sport, but not as much as some people will think. People still bullfight, knowing that guys get gored to death regularly. That sport will end because people are concerned with the animals before it ends because people are scared for their own health.

There will always be people who love danger.

Isn't a CTE test that a commission could make you get or require for part of your license getting procedure going to force commission to take some actions? Idk that I believe commissions will allow guys with CTE to fight. So the risk of injury in boxing or the X games is legit, but with a CTE test out there thats a whole different angle when you are considering a boxer or X games competitor fighting or doing a stunt & having CTE.

But I definitely agree with you that much of the decision making going on will happen outside of the sport with guys deciding boxing isn't worth the risk or worth the risk at a certain point of fame, celebrity or a nice enough bank account. I suspect a lot of cats would do their own CTE testing outside of boxing commissions to so you might never know how much CTE is having if you can tell from test to test how much further damage has been done towards a CTE outcome too.

Its for sure a big game changer for boxing in my eyes doe.

[The Gambler1981]

Pretty much the Real Steel scenario. Boxing will become impossible to insure and less athletes will want to participate as they know the risks and the rewards are generally garbage (and getting worse as the money squeezes) for an athlete (other than a smaller athlete).


Serious care about brain injuries is the end of boxing always was really.

[Sparked_26]

There are footballers who are getting CTE now just by heading a ball. That impact is nothing, you don't get concussed or even buzzed or even really notice it but the small hits build up over time. There was a footballer recently who has retired at 33 with severe headaches. Compare that to boxing. Some of you Americans' are always telling us that 'soccer' is played by little girls - even they're knocking their brains about heading a football.

Unfortunately, with boxing brain injury is basically implicit within the sport. There is nothing you can do to make the sport safer unless you banned punching to the head. Honestly, do we think the best fighter of our generation and defensive wizard Floyd Mayweather's brain is going to look as healthy as your average Joe in a side-by-side post mortem. Not to be morbid but it's going to look a bit like the other one except a bit pickled.

I don't think any of the following suggestions would make that much difference and at the end of the day boxing is people's livelihoods and its risks are well documented but I've had a go, lol.

1.) you find ways to shorten the fights. Either smaller gloves or less rounds.

2.) have other safeguards in place like 4 big concussions and you're out.

3.) 24 hours to rehydrate has created weight bullies but it also ensures these guys get in there with adequate CSF fluid. On balance it must help. Keep it.

4.) You could feasibly have specific gravity urine tests the day of the fight it is a simple dipstick test and if it was elevated you could pull the fighter it is a good marker of dehydration.

I love boxing but it does bother me, tbh, that these tragedies can happen. I am sure there are lots of heads smarter than me that can come up with better ideas.

[_original_]

American sissies will all get out while the foreigners will thrive and take over.


Kidding aside, it's an interesting discussion, and my theory has always been that it's the excessive sparring that does you in.

[Sparked_26]

American sissies will all get out while the foreigners will thrive and take over.


Kidding aside, it's an interesting discussion, and my theory has always been that it's the excessive sparring that does you in.

Less sparring sounds like a good one.

[Eff Pandas]

Pretty much the Real Steel scenario.

LOL. I'm actually thinking VRish boxing becomes a thing. If you could have a guy fight inside a VR world to a worse VR ending then in a real boxing match plus have them feel some amount of comparable damage without any real damage being done that prevent them from fighting tomorrow or next week. Could become more popular then boxing has ever known in theory. VR tech needs to get there doe & thats just now becoming a thing to more & more people so I suspect thats a good 20 years away probably if not longer I'd amateurly guess.

[Eff Pandas]

Kidding aside, it's an interesting discussion, and my theory has always been that it's the excessive sparring that does you in.

Sparring is for sure an underappreciated problem with the damage one takes in boxing. Some seem to think if it wasn't on TV then it doesn't count.

I've been hearing more MMA guys who've quit sparring already or severely reduced it ("Cowboy" Cerrone being among the more known). And I tend to think it is a overused form of training for experienced guys who know what a fight looks like & sparring tends to take away more from them for the fight they are training then it gives them for that fight.

Younger less experienced guys I think its a more worthwhile training tool to get them more used to what a "real fight" is like.