based on rios' tendency to take as much punishment as he dishes out, will he suffer from pugilistic dementia in the long run?:think
Very slight slurring in his speech. It's a miracle that fighters with his style do not end up punch drunk, look at JCC Sr!
That's one of the price to pay in this brutal sport. Get the adulation of fans with exciting fights, and lose the quality of your retirement life due to brain damage.
It is largely based on the individual. Some fighters have taken tremendous punishment and don't seem punch drunk at all. Others show extremely bad symptoms and have taken less punishment. His style won't favour him though. He likes to fight and enjoys being hit.
I don't know, it's weird some fighters similar to Brandon like JCC Sr and Margarito don't slow any signs of slurring. Yet fighters who don't take that many shots like Toney show crazy slurring.
It really differs from one guy to another. But getting your brain scrambled on almost every fight is a ticket to palookaville. I remember a story about WIllie Pep, probably one of the most elusive boxers of all time, eventually had trouble remembering basic things and even relatives. Sad.
I think all fighters must accept that risk before pursuing the sport at the professional level. With that said, Rios should be fine if he saves his money and retires before he's 30.
Sweet Pea too:-(...Much of the damage unfortunately comes from years and years of gym wars with sparring partners.
I forgot about sweet pea. I know Toney does a LOT of sparring so maybe you're right that's probably what it is. But then Mayweather does **** loads of sparring too and he's not slurring. I think like the guy above said it really just depends person to person. I always thought maybe guys like Margarito, Brandon and JCC etc are used to the punishment where as someone like Roy Jones who barely get's hit suddenly starts taking punishment, he's not used to it so it may effect him more than others.
Some good examples of that are defensive specialists like Benitez who suffers from pugilistic dementia and Whitaker and Toney who both have trouble with their speech then on the other spectrum you have guys like Genne Fullmer,Carmen Basilio,Jake Lamotta,Tony De Marco etc guys who took more punishment in one fight than guys like Benitez,Toney and Whitaker took in their entire careers and they are still going strong both physical and mentally in their late 80's early 90's, it really depends on the individual like you said.