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TOUCHLINE
ISSUE 19 | NOV 2014
TOUCHLINE
FEATURE
“Boxing damages your
brain: don’t let anybody
tell you different”
where they have torn the nerve cells
around them. This damages those
nerve cells, and those cells start to
develop the tangles that you see in
Alzheimer’s disease.
“And what we now understand is that
this process spreads.”
Muhammad Ali’s tragic slide into
dementia is the most salient image
when we think of the long-term
damage boxing can do. He developed
a stutter and a tremor even before
the end to his career, and now has
Parkinson’s Disease. Considering his
former grace and eloquence, this
change holds great poignancy for all
sports fans.
In fact, there is evidence that suggests
the damage from CTE causes protein
tangles in the
brain. Trials
on mice have
suggested that
these tangles
spread damage
from neuron
to neuron.
The article in
New Scientist
by Hardy goes on to say that this
condition is not confined to boxers
in their later career. Head trauma in
the young may be significant enough
to change their behavior before
even going professional. Violence,
aggression and depression “are
consistent with underlying damage
to the frontal cortex, which controls
executive functions such as impulse
control.”
But sometimes the boxer has the
pithiest take on the subject. As
boxer Barry McGuigan said, “Boxing
damages your brain: don’t let
anybody tell you different”.
While the medical community might
want the sport abolished, most agree
that this is both impossible and
undesirable.
To many, boxing is a magnificent
sport, the sport to which all others
aspire. It is obvious that humans have
been boxing in some capacity for a
very long time. It fulfilled important
social functions as aggression was
formalised. Boxing is in our DNA. We
are as likely to ban alcohol as we are
boxing.
Boxing is an undeniably noble sport
with a long history. There is, however,
a darker side. People enjoy seeing
violence. It is hard to argue against
this notion given the popularity of
boxing
and lately
of Mixed
Martial
Arts. Most
societies
have some
form of
ritualised
and
legalised systems for two men – and
increasingly women – to hit each
other.
Ban boxing and there will be an
inevitable underground movement.
Underground fighting is already a
highly dangerous, criminal activity,
but it would exponentially grow
should boxing be banned. The
conditions would be infinitely worse,
featuring less or no medical care, and
human exploitation would be rife.
Indeed, boxing is safer now than
ever before. Between the 1930s and
1950s, boxing was a long-term career.
Medical science was not where it is
today, and a professional would be
in the ring for an average of 10 to 20
years. The gloves were heavier, which
delivers more force. Boxers were not
evenly matched for size or skill and
yet ring officials rarely called off a
fight, even when one of the boxers
had been knocked into tomorrow.
Even when their career ended, they
would participate in sparring which
could leave them fighting well into old
age.
Compared with those days, boxing
is a much safer sport. Harry Mullan,
boxing correspondent for The
Independent newspaper, states that
there is a far higher death toll in
grand prix racing. “Racing drivers die
in pursuit of enhanced profits and
sales figures for the manufacturers
of the cars they drive,” he says, “but
boxers battle in a purer and more
noble cause.”
Extreme sports such as base-jumping
are very risky ventures, but are yet to
suffer the same community outrage
as boxing.
The social effects of youth boxing
in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
are well-documented. Many inner-
city youths are saved from a life of
crime and possibly death because
they join a gym. Boxing gives them a
sense of community, discipline and
self-respect. It provides them with
a genuine path to financial security,
even of extreme wealth.
While sections of the medical
profession are warning against the
sport, it would seem that no amount
of medical warnings will stop people
from boxing. The chief argument is
that in no other sport is the objective
to render someone unconscious. But
in a way, this at least makes the sport