Punch drunkenness

Terry Norris doesn't sound well these days. Joe Frazier's speech sounded slurred during the final years of his life, but his fluency was fairly normal. I heard an interview a couple years ago with Jose Ribalta and he sounded a little punchy.

 

Jerry Quarry, Patterson, Benitez, Jimmy Ellis were sad cases, indeed.

 

My Uncle met Tommy Hearns in Detroit one time after he had retired and told me he sounded punch drunk. Also, Ali has Parkinson's. That's not punch drunk.

 

I hear Duane Bobick is pretty messed up. Rid**** Bowe sounds terrible, as does Toney. It might be easier to compile a list of guys who DON"T sound punchy.

 

Anyone seen a recent James Toney interview?

 

Patterson, at least, was in good shape for a long time after his career, then it caught him near the end of his life. Benitez, Quarrey were hit with it earlier, especially Benitez.

 

It's the price you pay, unfortunately. Read about the last days of Mickey Walker,Billy Conn, SRR or so many other of our All Time Greats... Joyce Carol Oates said it best, and I paraphrase, "Boxing exhausts what it celebrates."

 

There's different levels of it. A lot of active and former boxers have what I would call a thick tongue without being confused. They are normal in every other respect. You could argue that the sport has affected their speech even at that point but it is a long way off Jerry Quarry and Denny Moyer. It's a very difficult thing to assess.

 

I don't know if he is punch drunk but Earnie Shavers is unintelligible.
So is Larry Holmes but better than Shavers.

 

Old people get confused in general but a hard boxing career can bring that forward a lot. Head trauma is not good.

People have to be sensible and honest with themselves but people be being people we often are not.

There's no getting away from it though that it is unexplainable how some old ex fighters with long hard careers behind them appear to lead a full life after boxing.

Nobody knows why or who it should effect. If George Chuvalo and Jake Lamota suddenly became confused after all this time would it be old age or boxing?

Smoking kills. But if a guy gets to 80 before it kills him (like John Wayne) does it count?

 

Holmes has a lisp and a gravelly voice but he doesn't sound punchy to me.

From that era of heavies Foreman, Chuvalo, Bugner, Lyle didn't seem punchy last time I heard them.

 

Some of the guys mentioned spoke badly in their prime. Toney always sounded uneducated and was often close to unintelligible.

 

Not that I don't believe in punch-drunkenness, but a lot of times as people get older they cannot express themselves like they used to, not just boxers.

 

Ali has Parkinson's SYNDROME, not Parkinson's DISEASE. Parkinson's SYNDROME can be caused by brain damage a la blows to the head. People for years have tried to minimize the culpability of boxing in Ali's case because he was so popular and so famous but the fact is that Ali's condition is attributable directly to boxing and the blows he got hit with. Hes not the first boxer who suffered similar "injuries" and he wont be the last.