Do a majority of boxers pass away due to dementia?

Yes, it's common, but it's not a majority. I doubt it's much more common than for pro football players though.

 

Even non boxers get dementia, but it does seem that a lot of the old timers with a lot of fights like Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Pep and the Quarry brothers as well as Patterson and Johannsen did suffer from this. To say the majority of boxers pass away from the condition is tricky. They may be demented, but die from heart disease, for example, which may or may not be directly responsible for their deaths.

 

Seems to have gotten to the old timers a good bit, from what I read. But they also used to fight 200+ fights, fight 3-4 times a month, and go 15 rounds....or more in the older cases.

Now the fighters have mandatory 45-60 day rests after being T/KO'd, Cat Scans, doc's on the look out for early signs of trouble, and only fighting 2-3 times a year at top level.

Hopefully, it is a thing of the past.

 

Dementia can be commonly found not only in the boxers themselves, but also their fains. Margarito's in particular.

 

And its the kind of dementia that doesn't pass away... :hey

 

Senile dementia is common in people that age.

 

You can do a search on threads I have started. I posted a link to the grim outlook for NFL players.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120139

Did it myself. I'm such a nice guy, but most of you already know and appreciate that I'm sure......

 

Very common in old-time fighters given how often they fought, etc.. I wouldn't be surprised to see it less now that careers are significantly shorter.

 

The life span of most boxers who stayed in the game too long is about 10 years less than the average man.

 

Yes, "stayed in the game too long". If you want to leave healthy, leave early. Boxing is a young man's sport.

 

Where do you get this info from? Pep was 84 when he died, I'll be delighted if I get an innings like that.

 

Sorry quoted the wrong guy, question was to Mendoza.

 

Well, there's two different questions here...

"Do a majority of boxers pass away due to dementia?" is not the same as "Do a majority of boxers who used the face shield defense or fought past their expiration date and ate a lot of flush shots in their career pass away due to dementia?"

In either case, I would venture to say no, as it's not something you hear about constantly...often enough that it's a frightening reality of the sport, but if it were a majority - even just a majority of defensively deficient fighters, there would be a lot more bad press and a lot more vilification of the sport. Think about how many tomato cans there are out there (and have been, for generations). Two high-profile names within a few years probably does belie a greater number of lesser-known casualties, but I doubt it's on an epidemic scale. Someone would have noticed the statistics and screamed bloody murder by now.

 

You won't be too excited to go through what Sugar Ray Robinson endured the last 10 years of his life. He died in 1989 at the age of 67.