Mental illness and boxing are they synonymous?

That's definetly true. If you think about getting hit in the head no matter if it causes a concussion or not is causing mild damage , which recovers with nueroplasticity , so your brain to an extent is constantly being rewired, getting punched in the head since the age of 7 when your brain is developing is bound to cause some degree of mental abnormality

 

As was said, it's a combination of things. The characters that go into boxing have usually suffered a lot outside the ring and carry mental instability with them into boxing. And head trauma aside, Boxing is a very trying sport. It puts so much ego on the line, requires so much pain and sacrifice in training, and often the reward isn't enough for the risk.

 

I would say the Olympic & Amateur successes who started when they were 8 are less mentally unstable than guys who got into the sport with lower aspirations.

 

i think thats on average more due to grounding, and tbh the guys who got into it later were more than likely fighting on the streets well before they got into boxing

also guys who have trained from that age are defensively usually very very good eg mayweather, lomachenko. and have developed great defensive skills meaning they don't take as many shots , ffs its near impossible to even hit lomachenko in the head.

while boxers who get into it later tend to be guys who havn't developed as much skill but are very strong and prefer to brawl

but your point is a good one and what i said in the earlier post is more in relation to how getting punched in the head at a younger can cause your brain to develop differently rather than saying getting into boxing young means higher levels of brain damage

 

people who excel are sometimes driven by mental illness to attain a status that others would never want to consider attaining (except as a pipe dream/whilst watching tv/films).

the elevation to world status and subsequent removal of it to take you down to nothing, thats gotta be a wrecking experience.

also, I tihnk it attracts people with big egos, who tend not to be team players, prefer to take on things by themselves so that they naturally dont allow themselves to network and deal with bad situations in groups. People will often turn to one-on-one solo work when they find they cant get on with working with others. The self selection in boxing tends towards such characters. Mental illness when it occurs, has a much easier job of taking down someone for whom social support isnt natural.

Also, boxers need to to retain "childish" ways that its fun/acceptable to repeatedly hit someone in the face, but that not a social asset, not actually legal nor even sane thinking/legit social reaction.

 

I recall the Sun's Bonkers Bruno Locked Up headline

 

i hate tabloids , lines like that are just disgraceful

what ever you think of bruno, he was a nice guys and a good boxer who gave it he's all , to then turn around when he is going through a bad period with mental illness and write stuff like that is disgraceful

 

Nice guys don't wife beat.

 

never heard that story, you may be right.

 

floyd mayweather jr. definitely has some psych issues.

 

It does not do the brain much good to be pummeled with force repeatedly over the years. Also the personality of the fighters is more alpha than many others in society and all too often they learn to take out frustration and solve problems by beating the living snot out of someone. Inside the ring they are praised ....outside....sometimes jailed. on the other hand....it does feel good to beat the snot out of some of the goobs in this world huh?