Boxers who (seem to) have there health intact post career?

McLarnin, Schmeling, LaMotta, Johnson (died in a car accident), Tunney, Dempsey, Sharkey, Carpentier, Jeanette, Conn, Loughran, Pep and many others were all in good health after their careers ended.
Currently I would say George Foreman, he seems to be in pretty good condition. So does Azumah Nelson.

 

Chuvalo has brain damage. He's not doing too good.

 

Even among the best of them you sometimes feel that you can detect a slight slurring or lack of cohesion in their thoughts BUT, we do (or I do) look more acutely at boxers for such symptoms - and sometimes we’re looking at vision of them that is some 20 + years apart.

Imagine us under such a microscope over many years - we might not scratch up too well either. Lol.

That’s not to deny the very real negative effects of taking punches - rather, it’s just to be wary of any tendencies toward confirmation bias.

The scary part is that you often read that in the early stages of dementia, the “mistakes” can appear regular and innocuous - just random- but they turn out to be literally anchored in the disease and quickly become much worse over a bit more time.

I saw an IV a while back, before the condition really hit him, and Chuvalo made a few small errors re fight details and timelines.

You could’ve put that down to normal ageing, just having a bad day or what not - but up until then, Chuvalo had been acutely spot on with his recollections and the related details. So analysis of the befores and afters really matter.

Bugner was similar. Before it was reported that he had entered a home, he did an IV in which he confused some facts.

Unusual for Joe, because he was generally very accurate in his recollections. Mind you, Joe was still very articulate - so if you didn’t know your boxing history, you’d be none the wiser.

The only other possible symptom on display was that the normally placid Bugner was somewhat edgy and angry during the IV - something to do with Russell Crowe letting him go as an advisor (thereby breaking a promise) for the film The Cinderella Man, IIRC.

I mean, it’s possible that Joe’s grievances with Crowe were borne out of the beginnings of his own confusion - impossible to know for sure.

I’ve heard other fighters get their details wrong - but that’s just them - or at least they’ve always been that way, without anything sinister necessarily causing their forgetfulness or inaccurate relating of details.

I saw a very early IV with Ali who said he knew Cleveland Williams punched hard because he broke Liston’s jaw. Now Ali might’ve been misinformed in the first instance or simply got his facts confused. All else otherwise, the early 20 odd years old Ali was of course super sharp.

 

Me too.

 

There; over there

Their; kept their health




Guess one too many to the head.

 

Mark Breland

 

Wow, Ted sounds better than some active fighters.

 

Tragic affair. He seemed coherent and well when discussing Patterson-Johanson which is what I base my assumption of aging fine on.

 

That sounds the same as Larry in 1982.

 

Yeeaah but it seems worse now.
It may have always been the predominant thought in his head. Now it seems like its the only rhought in his head

 

Off the top of my head:

• SRL
• JCC Sr.
• Erik Morales
• MAB
• JMM
• George Foreman
• Lennox Lewis
• Ward
• Bradley
• ODLH
• Jose Luis Lopez
• Fraud Mayweather
• Mike Tyson (considering the bigger guys he fought against)
• Hopkins
• RJJ
• Margarito

There are more out there I'm sure.

 

If you wonder what happened to Tex acting career , he happened to be on the same bill as other fighters involved in fight fixing. There was a documentary, The Fix was In , about it. Mark Gastinau tried boxing after football & supposedly had a vicious KO punch they got opponents to confess his fights were fixed . Being on the same card Tex being the most recognizable one had his pic on the cover of Sports Illustrated under the heading The fix was in !! That is what scuppered Tex acting career.He was innocent himself .
Few years ago Tex graduated college with a Magna Cum Laude in Sports Management . When the Dean presented him with his diploma he said " Tex EARNED this diploma he worked his butt off he had no special treatment whatsoever Congratulations." Tex was one of the toughest guys I ever met & also had a very sharp wit. I'm sure you all has seen some of his hilarious one liners. Great guy too

 

Holmes is 74. If he's going a bit senile, it's likely age, as he's seemed completely fine up until now.