Preventing ring deaths:
Are pro boxing interests trying to outlaw their competitors?
Preventing ring deaths:
Are pro boxing interests trying to outlaw their competitors?
As most fight fans are now aware, a young woman died from head injuries
suffered as a result of her participation in a toughman contest in Florida.
Folks, womenkickboxing.com did some research just to see how the
safety record of toughman contests stack up with
the death rates for pro-boxing.
The reason we decided to research the safety records for both sports, is because
it appears that pro-boxing interests are trying to ban their competitors,
the toughman contests, on the grounds that "toughman contests"
have too many fatalities associated with them.
So, what are the facts?
Twelve men have died in Toughman-style amateur fighting since
the sport's inception in 1979.
And, many professional boxers have died during that same time frame
due to injuries suffered in professional boxing?
Below is a table of pro boxing deaths for every year through 2001:
you will see that 118 people have died from injuries suffered
in pro boxing matches.
Now some will surely object that there are many more pro-boxing fights
than toughman contest fights. To which we would simply reply:
The fact still remains that there were 118 deaths from Pro boxing
since 1979, and only 12 deaths from toughman contests. So, if
pro boxing had been banned in 1979, 118 deaths would have been prevented.
Whereas, only 12 deaths would have been prevented had toughman contests
been banned in 1979. So if ring deaths are the real problem, which sport present a bigger public health problem? Boxing with 188deaths in a
14 year period? or Toughman contests with 1/10 as many deaths in the same time
period?
Only the most morally obtuse individuals could condemn toughman contests,
and not
go after professional boxing with an even greater fury.
So, why then, aren't these tough man critics trying to ban pro boxing, that has 10
times as many deaths over the same time frame, If they are sincerely concerned about ring deaths?
womenkickboxing.com believes the real reason is because boxing
promoters
simply want to outlaw as much competition to pro boxing as possible.
Because, if they were sincerely concerned about ring deaths they
would first focus on fixing their own sport,
that has had ten times as many ring deaths as toughman contests,
over the very same time period.
But, instead they have cynically decided to exploit the
tragic death of a young woman in a toughman contest as an opportunity to rid
themselves of a nuisance competitor:
Mr. Art Dore, and his toughman contests. That is shameful.
If we let them ban toughman, what will they come after next?
Vale Tudo? NHB? then Muay Thai?
NO! We need to tell these and busybodies to butt out of what is none of their
business and prevent some of the deaths in their own sport first.
We should not permit them to get away with this ruse.
So, what can we do to make both activities safer without trampling on
the rights of consenting adults to mutually decide for themselves just what
risks they are willing to take?
First, there should be a rule that no person can enter a pro for money fight of
any kind (Boxing, Kickboxing, NHB, "Toughman Contests") unless they
have a certain minimum number of amateur fights first. This will stop those who
simply climb into a ring impulsively on a dare. It will also insure that those
entering the ring were serious enough and disciplined enough, to learn at least
some basic fundamentals and have gotten themselves into at least minimum
physical condition.
Surely that is a better solution than trying to outlaw a sport that has
had
only 12 deaths since 1979, while for purely political reasons, ignoring a sport
(Boxing) that has had 118 deaths over the same time frame.
It is utterly ridiculous that a person can be considered a "professional
Boxer" simply by passing a medical and buying a license. Without EVER
having fought before.
And then, they could easily end up fighting their pro debut against another
"debut" fighter, who has 20-30 amateur fights, but who is technically
0-0 as a professional.
So one can see how mismatches occur in all sports where no amateur experience is required before fighting as a professional. In the opinion of womenkickboxing.com, mismatches are the most frequent cause of ring deaths in Toughman contests.
And that can easily be remedied by an amateur experience requirement prior to
participating, in any combat sport. This would stop impulsive, untrained
individuals from climbing through the ropes on a dare, and also insure
that only persons who are serious enough and disciplined to train and
condition themselves properly are fighting in the ring.
To simply ban a certain form of combat sport, is a nostrum, at best.
Moreover, legislating away certain types of combat sport, is discriminatory, and anti -competition. And if any business needs competition-it is the sleazy sport of professional boxing.
here are the links to the two sites where we got the statistics
for deaths from Professional Boxing:
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth_a_0700.htm
and here is the source for the statistics on deaths from Toughman contests
since it's
inception in 1979:
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/
The following table lists the documented deaths from
professional boxing for the period 1918-2000 inclusive.
The total is 817. For the century, 1901-2000,
the total is 936.
Table 7
Year deaths year deaths year
deaths year deaths
1918 5 1939
3 1960
12
1981 7
1919 5 1940
5 1961
11
1982 7
1920 3 1941
6 1962
16
1983 10
1921 9 1942
8 1963
16
1984 6
1922 19 1943
5 1964
17
1985 7
1923 15 1944
7 1965
13
1986 3
1924 16 1945
10 1966
12
1987 5
1925 13 1946
18 1967
6
1988 5
1926 6 1947
11 1968
6
1989 4
1927 8 1948
18 1969
6
1990 4
1928 15 1949
20 1970
9
1991 5
1929 17 1950
15 1971
11
1992 3
1930 24 1951
15 1972
12
1993 1
1931 9 1952
19 1973
5
1994 2
1932 21 1953
25 1974
11
1995 12
1933 10 1954
7 1975
12
1996 7
1934 6 1955
11 1976
6
1997 8
1935 9 1956
15 1977
9
1998 2
1936 8 1957
13 1978
10
1999 4
1937 7 1958
9 1979
11
2000 8
1938 7 1959
14 1980
5
2001 6
www.womenkickboxing.com
Posted June 21st 2003.
Addendum: on July 7th, 2003, we received some valued feedback from a reader
who offered the following (paraphrased and shortened) objection.
(see below in red font)
> I don't think you have furnished enough data
for anyone to "make up their own mind."
>
> Also, I have to say that taking absolute numbers to compare the two is most
> definitely not an objective way to look at the issue.
>
> I'm sure you'll find many more deaths by car accidents than deaths by
> boxing. But, that doesn't mean that boxing is safer than driving a car.
> There are just many more drivers than boxers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our reply: The point we are making (maybe not clearly enough) is simply this:
In our opinion, the bigger problem lies wherever the most deaths occur-regardless of statistical probabilities.
Why? Because, Statistical probability of death, (i.e.,% of risk stats) are nothing but abstractions.
Whereas, actual Deaths, on the other hand, are not abstractions-they represent real people. Which is more important to you? Making a sport safer that many more people die participating in, or focus on a sport where fewer people die, because far fewer people participate?
We can also use your example of highway deaths vs. boxing deaths to further
illustrate the point we are making.
So, lets ask ourselves which is the bigger *problem* to worry about?
Highway deaths or boxing deaths?
In our opinion, most people would be able to correctly identify highway deaths as a bigger problem to work on than boxing deaths.
So, I guess we disagree with your premise-we actually don't need more *data* or statistical analysis-we need more common sense.
Why go on a crusade to eliminate some activity (TM contests) that result in a
fraction of the deaths of boxing? That's misguided. And we believe also suggests
inadequately considered priorities. Such preoccupation with statistics
implies that they are more interested in risk percentages than actual deaths of real people. That's morally obtuse-if
you believe as we do, that people are more important than statistics.
Of course, we should work on eliminating deaths in all sports, whether its football, underwater caving, or whatever. -but, lets get more energized about the activities that create more deaths-regardless of the participation numbers.
If more people participate, and die as a result, of the sheer numbers-it's still a bigger problem.
Risk/participation ratios, and statistics don't change that reality.
The sincere but misguided folks that just want to be "statistically fair" to boxing, even though it results in more deaths than "TM"-think nothing of imposing upon on the freedom of choice of toughman contest participants.
That's morally obtuse.
I hope this clarifies our position further.
addendum posted: July 7, 2003
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