Implications for boxing post Blackwell tragedy...

Hopefully this is the end for one sided Matchroom canfests such as Joshua v 1st 12 opponents, Brook v Dan etc

One of these stiffs is going to be seriously hurt for very poor wages.

 

Very good point. Also the hysteria in the media whenever there is a boxing injury is in stark contrast to other sports such as cycling and in particular eventing (horsey stuff). Since 1993 there have been 60 deaths worldwide of riders in eventing/showjumping.
If worldwide sounds a big place and 23 years a long time, in a period of just four months in 1999 5 horse riders died in England alone. What makes this even more shocking is that many of the people killed in horse riding are teenage girls who clearly are less aware of the associated risks than adult boxers. Yet there is no hysteria, no calls for banning the spirt and no social workers taking away the parents other children.

 

I doubt it would stop the Blackwell incident, I hat yet the score breakdown. It would be a measure that pro boxing is taking things serious, as I suspect it rarely be needed.

 

Well is the point of the final round; the chances of the opponent winning is minimal.

 

Yes that often too gets ignored. The problem with that though is it is very hard to justify the legality of the sport; and there will be a time where that comes an issue.

 

That is boxing, there is a lot of heads in the sand. My suggestions are far from perfect, but at least are something that can start a debate.

The only justification for this sport is that if someone is able to pass the medicals required to box, who are you/we to stop them?

But that justification needs constant work to make it as difficult as possible for someone to box, who should not.

I would add further, as the quality increases the medicals should also get a lot harder.

A byproduct of this if enforced would be more even matches, which seems to be something the forum is always bemoaning does not happen.

The status quo should not ever be the answer, there should be constant debate looking for improvements, particularly as far as safety goes.

 

Things I dislike about modern boxing - Catch weight title fights giving the smaller guy a natural advantage and risking the health of the natural weight holder who has to drop weight to get a title fight

Even worse pros being eligible for the Rio Olympics. Imagine GGG v Anthony Fowler in the first round

 

How would you achieve this? Look at the scorecards after 8 rounds? It's so hard to deem if a fight has become uncompetitive, and we've all seen fights turned on their head in the last couple of rounds.

In championship fights, the ref doesn't score and yet you're asking him to assess the fight and decide its result based on it being 'uncompetitive'. That's so subjective, and open to abuse potentially.

And look at the uproar caused when Groves was pulled out of the 1st fight against Froch. Howard Foster had to withstand accusations of corruption and yet all he was doing was protecting the fighter. Groves was about to take two, three maybe four heavy blows while unable to protect himself. Who knows what damage they may have done? And yet the ref was seen to have made an error in judgment.

Equally, who knows if Froch was having one last attack before running out of steam? Unlikely, but we'll never know.

There's nothing you can do to mitigate all serious injury that can be sustained during a bout. There's a risk factor to fighting and all boxers are aware of what could happen. The only way to stop serious injury in the ring is to ban the sport and we don't want that. What happened to Blackwell is distressing but, ultimately, unavoidable.

 

How come every drama or bad event in this country is followed by a bandwagon demanding change to prevent it ever happening again? The only way to prevent people ever getting hurt is to wrap them in cotton wool. Boxing is a sport where hurting people is the aim of the game. There are sufficent safety procedures already. If you don't like it- don't box and don't watch.

 

If there was a 'duty of care' for trainers, bouts would start in the ring and end up in the court room. Sorry, nice idea... but only if you're a lawyer.

Regarding your other suggestion, from what you're saying a six round fight would effectively become a four round fight (with two additional rounds if deemed close enough) with boxers going at each other hell for leather to try and get a four-round lead.

In fact, the longer the scheduled bout the more dangerous your idea becomes, with two totally gassed boxers, who have emptied the tank in the first half of the fight, shipping punishment in the second half. Your suggestion would replicate the blueprint for the type of fights which most often lead to serious injury.

I think your ideas would make the sport more dangerous and more litigious.

 

I see what you are saying regarding the attritional and cumulative nature of head injuries in boxing vs the instantaneous fall in eventing. The similarity is that the inherent dangers in both sports are structural. The difference is that eventing claims three lives per year and 20x that in serious head injuries yet it receives no real widespread criticism.

If three people on average are dying each year then surely it is predictable? In addition it is the type of jump that causes the dangers resulting in a "rotational fall" that causes nearly all deaths yet they haven't banned the obstacles that cause these falls because the sport would be ruined. The dangers associated with horse riding are accepted by the powers that be...it's even done by some obscure royals so it must be OK.

Unfortunately it comes down to snobbery in the media etc. I can't remember the brain injury charity Headway railing against horse riding yet they waste no time in calling for changes to boxing. Class-based hypocritical nonsense.

 

I'm happy to see reforms but don't think the rule changes proposed would be helpful.

As fans we can do our part by not condemning fighters on the wrong side of a beating for allowing themselves to be pulled out by caring corners.

As another suggestion, perhaps we could extend the amount of time fighters are given to recover in between rounds to allow trainers to ask them a couple of questions to make sure they're still with it. Nothing too much, just say 15 seconds or so wherein they can make sure they mentally know what they're doing.