No, that would make it worse! The fighters need time to get things done, to get the KO, and we the fans want to see them get it done! When a fighter is in trouble I want to see a finish. I don't want him saved by the bell! And we wear pads in football and soccer and hockey, you know. How about we take the gloves off and not wear mouth guards, because, you know, by stepping into the ring they've acknowledged that they might lose their teeth? A little safety, now. Come on. Too many punches is bad. Dropping from 15 rounds to 12 did not hurt the sport. I still like my 4-minute idea.
Equipment got better, and the rules changed. With bare knuckle rules, you could only strike your opponent in the head with your bare hand for so long until you had to find softer targets. A good majority of the old bare knuckle fights were won more by body punching than by a straight to the jaw. With better gloves, now you can hit the head with less risk of injury, thus inviting more strikes to the head and more risks of brain trauma in the long run.
There's a lot of bouts that more than likely would not have had the winner they do now in the history books with 15 rounds. **Gentleman Jim Corbett won the HW title from John Sullivan in 1892 in the 21st round. **Jess Willard won the HW title from Jack Johnson in 1915 by scoring the KO in the 26th round. **Heck, Joe Gans himself defended his title against Battling Nelson by dropping him in the 42nd round.
John L Sullivan knew there was no future in bare knuckle boxing, which was slow paced and involved a lot of wrestling. So he pushed for gloved fights. As for the old 45 round fights they were slow paced if you watch them. Wouldn't you pace yourself in a scheduled 45 rounder? So they reduced the number of rounds to speed up the action. As for risk of head injuries, Robinson, Archie Moore, and a bunch of others fought HUNDREDS of pro bouts, including 15 rounders wearing smaller gloves than they do today. Were they supermen or something?
Sugar Ray Robinson had Alzheimer's when he turned older, which some studies say can be attributed to his boxing career. Archie Moore had fantastic defensive skills, but even so not everyone who boxes suddenly suffers from head injuries. However, more rounds make more damage in the long run hence why they reduced from 15 to 12. That's also why amateurs box only 2 minutes instead of 3. It's similar to the trend we're seeing in the NFL. Ever notice how when they increased the season so the teams played more games, a lot more players started getting hurt? That's one of the reasons why they had the lockout last year.
Smaller gloves do not equal harder hits. I'm surprised no one has called you on that. While we are talking about old school boxers you have to bear in mind that people like Sugar Ray etc were fighting at a time when no one was really aware about the possible long term impact of boxing. The reason boxing is more cautious about head trauma today is because the boxing community has learnt through some heart breaking examples what happens when guys spend their lives getting hit in the head for long periods of time.
Funny she mentioned Robinson, as the death of his opponent Jimmy Doyle after Robinson KOed him was one of the big contributors to these precautions.
And noone ever suffers fatal injuries today? Unfortunatly it happens. Thats a risk. Did it happen more often in those days? I don't know for sure but i wouldn't be suprised because they fought so many more fights.
From a purely spectator point of view, 15 round is just too long. Unless it's Ali vs Frazier then it's just not worth it. I want to see boxing in 7 ounce gloves, looking more like old prize fighters, more frequent knockouts and exciting fights, something like seven, four minute rounds. Probably wouldn't call it boxing though. :/ (In before the MMA and K-1 jokes)
That's a very laissez-faire attitude to safety. OK, you could say "a boxer can decide if they want to risk their health", but another perspective is "should a promoter be able to ask a boxer to risk his health?". If promoters could stage a fight to the death, and get the audiences in, they probably would and they could probably tempt some schmuck who really needed the money to give it a try. Thankfully, by introducing some basic safety regulations, boxers are not put in the position where their agent says "you can risk your health by doing this fight, or you can lose your livelihood because I'll never arrange another fight for you again."
I never said there should be no safety regulations. When has there ever been a fight to the death in the history of boxing? Unless you want to go back to ancient Rome. The old fights to the finish were phased out because they were slow paced and boring and they went on too long I just don't see what the problem was with 15 round championship fights.
People face fatal injuries in car crashes today. That doesn't mean that we should ignore seat-belts. Adding those extra three rounds on, where fighters are tired, sluggish and slow.. and therefore taking lots of extra-damage on top of all trauma they have suffered during the fight is more trouble than its worth. It significantly increases the death rate and long term health risks of boxing with little to no pay-off in terms of providing platform for skill. Those fighters admit that there is a chance that they will get hurt, but that is not a get out of jail free card. Fighters should not have to needlessly risk Alzheimers Disease because people who lived in a time of great ignorance on the subject also risked it.
There are many Alzheimers patients who never boxed in their lives so don't say boxing is the cause of Alzheimers. Are you confusing Alzheimers with Parkinsons Disease which Ali has? I believe ending the 15 round championship fights was well meaning but misguided. I don't think three rounds signifigantly increases anything. Many of the old time fighters lived to be old men. Amazing since they fought so much more often than they do now. I guess they were just hardened to it. Maybe people today are softer.
http://www.weitzlux.com/traumaticbraininjury_682.html Parkinsons disease is not the only risk run when facing head trauma! :bang: Long Term Brain damage comes from extended periods of head trauma. You reduce the time fighters need to fight for (like those last three rounds where the fighters are taking huge amounts of damage now that their defences are down) and you reduce those major long term health risks. It's unbelievable an entire boxing community along with specialists in the fields of head trauma saying "these prolonged bouts significantly increase the risk of these fighters developing a catastrophic mental illness, this is unacceptable." And what is your response? "Herp Derp, ignorant people did ignorant things that means it is not ignorant to do what they did herp derp, and even if this does lead to major brain damage it doesn't matter anyway herp de derp"
If it was up to the medical community there would be no boxing anyway. BTW ive seen more serious injuries at the Calgary Stampede than ive seen in all the boxing matches ive seen. Should we ban the rodeo for being unsafe? Many people who have never experienced head trama develop Parkinsons and Alzheimers. Do your brain experts have all the answers for that? In a violent contact sport things happen. Ask boxers, football players, rodeo riders. A CHAMPIONSHIP fight should still be 15 rounds. Anyway i have to go to work. I'll continue this conversation later.
Not everyone who has Parkinson's was a boxer either, much like not everyone who dies from lung cancer was a smoker. However, certain activities do increase the likelihood. If you don't think it increases anything, then it obviously must not decrease much either then, so arguing for more rounds is a moot point. Or, like we said before, they took significantly less punishment to their heads because of the rules of the times.
