They say cutting weight is now whats most detrimental to a boxers health. LaMotta claims to have cut around 4,000lbs in weight throughout his whole career. There were days he wasn't even allowed to suck on an ice cube.
Seventy seven years is longevity? Only 28,105 days = 77 years. That's a total of just 924 months with 220 of those months used for growing up to full adulthood if we count full adulthood at 20. That leaves only 704 months as a full adult. Of those, a whopping 324 months are spent gradually deteriorating or losing what was gained before due to old age if we count old age as starting at 50. Add up the time taken in old age and growing up and you have a a grand total of 544 months consumed just growing up and living as an old person. Subtract that 544 sum of months from the total and we are left with just 380 months of relative youth from 20 to 50. BTW Remember, each year reduces that total by twelve. Add the effect of time seeming to speeding up the longer we live and they fly away like the wind.
Lamotta is amazing, Duran who fought and won fights in 5 decades! is 66 and looks and talks fantastic.! Some people can just absorb it better than others
On the other end of this is Benitez. An all time defensive master yet he has been brain damaged from a young age and is just too difficult to watch how he is today.
Really bad shape. And he was really a sharp young guy before fighting in that "Murder's Row" of the mid -70's - early 80's, Featherweight, Super-feather & Lightweight divisions.
Pugilistic dementia shortens a person's life significantly. The percentage of boxer's who get this are a small minority, although there are probably more mild cases that go undiagnosed. It would have a pretty limited impact in terms of population statistics. Traumatic Parkinson's would shorten a person's life somewhat. I'm guessing 0-10 years and these people will die from things that aren't directly linked to Parkinson's, although the condition pretty much puts a cap on how phyisically healthy you can be. I agree that boxers currently have shorter than average lifespans. The main reason why is lack of education imo. The ones who end up broke in retirement also have semi or actual poverty complicate it. Educated people are better at preventing chronic health problems and controllig them once they arise. I work in healthcare and there are generally pretty big differences in the way middle class people age compared to lower class.
Its weird, but then again you see some people who never box or suffer any head trauma who start having serious difficulty with memory loss by the time they're 60, and then you see people who remain totally lucid in their late 80s. Part of it is genetics and part of it is active lifestyle vs sedentary lifestyle. I'm convinced. I had one grandfather who was a total mess from memory loss, Alzheimers, various other health issues by the time he was 70. He never minded his diet and spent all his time watching television and sitting around doing nothing after my grandmother died. My other grandfather (also widowed in his late 50s) was active-fishing, hunting, hiking, swimming-and kept a full social slate, and read voraciously and was perfectly sharp when he died of cancer at 85/86. So it makes perfect sense that a man like Bobby Chacon, who suffered horribly from depression, tragedy, and substance abuse would wind up in bad shape, while a gregarious, intellectually curious ranconteur like Archie Moore would hold up well. The lesson: keep busy folks!
Vargas is in for a rough retirement. Ditto for Brandon Rios. I hear Gabe Ruelas isn't doing so hot, which is worrisome considering his relative youth. But I can see guys like USS Cunningham, Hopkins, Klitschko brothers having a great post-boxing life.