Why are these defensive fighters so punch drunk...?

Agree with sparring and age eroding skills/reflexes. Just an observation though, defensive fighters are more often than not matched against big punchers whereas big punchers are more often matched against lighter fisted boxers...

Most defensive fighters, especially the ones named here, have great chins...I have always believed it is the best chins that wind up with dementia...

 

Since when has Floyd Patterson been a defensive specialist?

 

:thumbsup

 

Look at Chuvalo. Dude is normal as ever.

 

Maybe it's better to have a few FOTY fight's and then retire than to be a "defensive" wizard for a decade. Or maybe it just doesn't matter. Some fighters will get it and some won't. Look at Lamotta, he took tremendous punishment and he doesn't show any signs of PD.

:huh :?

 

Have you heard Shane speak lately? He already is sounding real nasal which is usually one of the first signs.

Really hope he retires.

 

Ali's footwork was his defense, once that went he was a punching bag, James Toney has over 70 fights, he was a middle-weight who transcended to heavy-weight he had nice defense but with that amount of fights he took his fair share of heavy punches, not to mention Toney's border-line ******ed...as for Pernell Whitaker I don't see him as being punch-drunk personally but everyones punches tolerance is different so it could be one fight or a certain one punch that can give you any level of brain damage..

Now as for Floyd Senior, what makes you think he's punch drunk, I wouldn't be surprised if he's talked that way his entire life, but seriously Floyd Sr. knows how to teach good defense...doesn't mean he was good at defense in his hey day, he was just an average boxer...

 

I honestly believe some people are just more prone to brain damage and loss of neurological control, and that it takes longer for a high functioning individual to show signs of damage (for example, a 140 IQ guy being batterred around is not going to sound stupid unless he actually has wide scale hemorrhaging from a horrific beating - Barrera still sounds normal! Morales and JCC and Hector Camacho all sound punch drunk, but I think Barrera has taken worse cumulative beatings than all of them - he was also probably the smartest to start off with)

 

A lot of boxers seem that way, it isn't just the defensive specialists. We just get to see those guys more because they're on television or doing interviews. Ali, Whitaker, and Toney fought for a long time also. Floyd Sr doesn't sound punch drunk. Nobody escapes pugilistic dementia if you believe in they diagnosis.

 

His defense was masterful, his offense just sucked. It took Leonard a lot of rounds of looking for him to get inside and hurt him, and Leonard is a penetrating offensive fighter.

 

No he isn't. But he is still sharp.

 

It's a correlational relationship and it's not 100%, it's just a matter of looking for general tendencies of those who make up the pool of fighters that get dementia...

 

Longer careers overlapping with age and eroding reflexes = puglistic dementia