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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
Yes, there have been tragedies in boxing.
But an unconscious man allowed by the ref to be struck 14 times when he is down and out and cannot defend himself? Not so much.
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I hope you might actually read this, Strange.
There have been, according to this report, 900 deaths in the ring since the 1920s. Note how this fighter - a guy fighting for a world title - took over 2 dozen shots when he could evidently no longer defend himself. Pretty sad, huh?
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Fighter's death renews abolition call
By John Mehaffey in London
September 25, 2005
The Sun-Herald
The death of American Leavander Johnson on Thursday after brain surgery has reignited the debate over professional boxing just two months after Mexican Martin Sanchez also died in a Las Vegas hospital.
Johnson, 35, had been in a critical condition since losing his IBF lightweight title to Mexican Jesus Chavez in Las Vegas last weekend.
An editorial in The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, after the fight said nearly 900 boxers had died as a result of injuries in the ring since 1920.
"It is time to halt that tabulation," the newspaper said. "It is time to ban boxing, a sport in which death is the predictable outcome of athletic proficiency ... it is surprising that more boxers don't die.
"Even among prizefighters who walk away, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons estimates 15-40 per cent of ex-boxers have some form of chronic brain injury and most professional fighters - whether they have apparent symptoms or not - have some degree of brain damage."
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World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaiman has promised an investigation into the death of Sanchez on July 2, the day after he was knocked out in the ninth round of a super-lightweight fight against Rustam Nugaev of Russia. Sulaiman also pledged to improve safety conditions in Indonesia, where he said five boxers had died in the past year.
Johnson, who absorbed at least two dozen unanswered punches to the head and body, collapsed in his dressing room after the referee stopped the fight in the 11th round. He did not regain consciousness after emergency brain surgery and doctors eventually decided to remove him from a life support machine when his kidneys failed and his heart stopped beating.
"I don't think there's anyone to blame here other than the circumstances," said promoter Lou DiBella. "He's a victim of his own courage."
William Smith, who performed the surgery, said boxers sustaining injuries similar to Johnson's had less than a 25 per cent chance of survival. "He suffered a very severe injury," Smith said. "The problem was that the injury was to the brain itself. In some cases the punishment is absorbed by the skull but in this young man's case the brain itself absorbed the punishment."
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I also wish to call to attention the case of Duk Koo Kim, perhaps the event most Americans are most familiar with. Kim came over to fight Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in 1982. He was a fighter with limited international experience who had never fought anyone of Mancini's calibre, talent or power.
Mancini stopped Kim in the 14th round and Kim died shortly thereafter.
4 months later, Kim's wife committed suicide.
2 months after that, the referee in charge of the fight, Richard Green, also committed suicide.
Mancini is haunted by Kim's death to this day.
Nice aftermath ...
I'd also like to point out, Strange, something you are obscuring. The rules of boxing have evolved over time, just as the rules in MMA continue to evolve. Kim's death brought about changes in fights, such as the elimination of 15 round fights, the implementation in all jurisdictions of the standing 8 count to allow a fighter a chance to recover and to allow a referee to determine whether the fighter could continue, and proper pre-fight medicals.
When you call upon the "great" fighters of yester-year (John L Sullivan, Jem Mace, Jack Johnson, etc) - you must be doing it tongue in cheek. Up until the 1920s and the time of the Dempsey-Tunney fights, fighters were permitted (and did so) to hit a man as he staggered to his feet after a knockdown.
It was only in the 20s that fighters were forced to move to a neutral corner, and the ability to hit a defenceless man was eliminated, at least in part.