Beginning To Read Damage-The Untold Story of Brain Damage In Boxing

Good book, Very interesting.
Shows just how much boxing takes out of a guy.
Those that leave the game and have a good healthy life after are extremely lucky (and rare)

 

That shocked me cos Herol was one of my favourites,a fellow Yorkshire Man.

 

It's very sad.
How can you avoid damage tho really in pro boxing.
It's the nature of the game to get the other guy out of there,if you can.
Unfortunately there will always be those tragic story's about retired fighters.

 

When I tell people that people that 95% of people who have ever boxed competitively have some sort of cognitive decline associated it, they usually respond that number is far too high. I think it might be a bit low. I would say that all professional boxers, current and former, have some degree of this. Some are better at hiding it than others. It's the price of admission.

 

I know Ray went to speech therapy after retiring the first time. He wanted to hide what he could but you could hear a bit of the thick tongue regardless. We shouldn't cringe at that. We need to be honest that its the price of admission boxers pay. Even a guy like me who participated as a kid at a Boy's Club for a few years and went on to keep going to gyms after that, on and off till almost 50. I never got knocked unconscious. I was fairly cautious and had good reflexes. My concentration is definitely deteriorated. I search for words. I can be forgetful. How much was getting hit in the head (I did have a bad concussion in hockey and another in a car crash)? I'm sure it didn't help.

 

I'm curious about Duran the most,he probably took the most damage with the duration of his career.

 

Boxing may well be struggling to be around in 30 or more years time. Certainly as it is now. In recent years NRL (rugby league) in Australia has been Making adjustments to try and look after players better. It's all about concussions. At present they get them checked real fast if they think they may have been concussed on field and obvious ones are dragged off pronto. They have spoken tests they have to pass if on the field and potentially concussed. Doctors assess those who have been taken off field. They have mandatory time off depending on results. It was 11 days at one point, probably still is. A couple of years ago the head of the NRL said if concussion isn't managed properly we won't have a product i.e. the sport will be gone.

There's been multiple players medically retired in recent years due to repeated concussions and susceptibility. One was Boyd Cordner who was one of the best players in the game and still in his prime at just 29 years old. There's been some stories on TV of players that retired a couple of decades ago that have serious brain trauma.

So given boxing is a sport designed where one of the main objectives is to know your opponent out, I'm a bit worried about where it might head in coming years.

 

Top post JT.

Seem to be hearing about more cases of ex NRL players with CTE.

I imagine you probably already know that Canterbury great Steve Mortimer at just 69 yo has advanced dementia and has been in a bad way for several years now. Sad.

Brit NRL great Gary Schofield (played for the Tigers in our comp.) recently revealed that he was diagnosed in March 2023 as having brain damage incurred during his career in Rugby League.

Have Wally Lewis’ health issues been linked to his NRL career? I could guess maybe but haven’t actually read of same.

Also crazy to think that an NRL player like Paul Gallen, who took his share of knocks on league, kind of jumped from the fat to the fire, when he moved from NRL to Boxing - as if trying to seal the deal for serious issues later on in life.

 

Toney probably did that in a year