12/21/24
September 22, 2005
Boxer Dies From Injuries Sustained in Bout: The family did the right thing and the those in the sport say nobody to blame.
posted by T$PORT4lawschool to boxing at 10:50 PM - 14 comments
it's so sad to see someone lose their life, especially a warrior like him, good speed, our prayers are with you and you family
posted by bharr_77 at 12:59 AM on September 23, 2005
"If there's any solace to be taken in this, it's that he died doing what he loved. He died a champion." Oh, shut up.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:48 AM on September 23, 2005
I think there should be some consideration to moving back to lighter gloves. At least they'll be breaking their hands before they're breaking their opponents brains.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 07:42 AM on September 23, 2005
This type of things has happened before, and unfortunately, it will happen again. Boxing IS violent, that's a fact. Using lighter gloves may help a little, ut I don't think it will stop these tragic incidents from occuring. This seems to be a situation where you can't really pass the buck here. The fighter that passed on had the choice of pulling out, but he didn't, and he went into the ring with a clear mind and heart. Perhaps as a society we need to take a closer look at what entertains us. Remember, Rome was brilliant and advanced as well...but they had the gladiator pits.
posted by supersly26 at 09:25 AM on September 23, 2005
Umm this is long and rambling, but here goes. It seems pretty easy to me right now after reading this to take a step back and say that's pretty fucking disgusting. People shouldn't die due to injuries sustained in sporting events. I dunno. I want to make the move that boxing is somehow qualitatively more vile than other sports, but people die during training camp in professional football. A few years back I read about some high school wrestlers died training as well. Football players get their bodies wrecked beyond repair. On the other hand, there seems to be something important about physical conflict in our conception of sport. At a symbolic level the two opponents are already fighting each other to the death. This battle is represented in different ways. Some sports are performed by individuals (racing, golfing, boxing) others are played by teams. If we remove the physical dimension entirely, we might as well be playing chess. Obviously we don't want that - which implies that at some level we accept that physicality and brutality are fundamental aspects of human experience that deserve to be represented through sport. Thus our reactions to hearing about a boxer die from injuries sustained in the ring would seem to provide evidence as to what extent physicality and brutality shape our conception of the world. Hmm, these seem to be some assumptions. 1. We don't want to play chess - at some level we want to beat the living shit out of each other. 2. People feel this need in different amounts. Some people play football, others actually do play chess. Can we remove all physical contact from sports and get away with it? Can we make sport purely mental exercises? Why don't we care that people get hurt?
posted by chmurray at 09:30 AM on September 23, 2005
Boxing is inherently violent. Maybe stopping fights earlier should be done. But, boxing is also a buisness and people want to see blood and beatings. Boxers know this going in. Lighter gloves? Not the answer. A lot more damage will be inflicted and a boxers hands will still be well protected. The only possible advantage I could see would be boxers getting knocked out earlier and not taking a sustained beating.
posted by roycedawg at 10:36 AM on September 23, 2005
Well that's kind of the kicker - the thicker gloves mean there's no holding back. Ergo harder punches that just beat the hell out of the brain. It's probably not a good answer, but I think that like most sports, we've managed to increase the technology to the point where boxers, football players and hockey players are wearing basically armour and can go at opponents confident in their own protection. I think it results in a ton of injuries.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:40 AM on September 23, 2005
Lighter gloves? Not the answer. A lot more damage will be inflicted and a boxers hands will still be well protected. A lot more superficial damage may be inflicted, but less important damage overall. Force = mass times acceleration, and the reduced mass of the gloves isn't going to lead to a significant change in acceleration.
posted by yerfatma at 10:45 AM on September 23, 2005
Here is the original article and thread, it has a little more info about the fight, and several others that went bad in Las Vegas.
posted by jojomfd1 at 12:54 PM on September 23, 2005
Didnt this already happen this year? This has been a gore year in sports.
posted by redsoxrgay at 02:19 PM on September 23, 2005
I hate boxing. Too brutal, too corrupt, and too many spattering bodily fluids.
posted by rcade at 05:19 PM on September 23, 2005
I do enjoy to watch boxing, don't get me wrong by my earlier posts. I have however had some prehospital care training. I find it very hard to believe that the first sign of any trouble for this man was when he started to drag one of his legs on the way to the dressing room. That is more a sign of a stroke, or an intracerebral hemorrhage, not a subdural. In subdural hematomas the bleeding usually occurs very slowly and may have a subtle presentation because blood loss is usually due to rupture of a small venous vessel, most commonly the superior sagittal sinus. Because this is above the pia mater, it does not cause the cerebral irritation associated with intracerebral hemorrhage. Furthermore, with a subdural hematoma the patient does not usually exhibit any overt signs/symptoms for hours, sometimes days after the original injury. This is why I said before that maybe something should be done improve the quality of care at ringside. I am not talking about an MRI as someone brilliantly said. Simply checking pupil size, can the fighter stick his tounge out STRAIGHT, can he repeat simple sentences, how are his grips, etc... Simple stroke assesment skills that all medical professionals are taught, especially now with the American Heart Association's drive to bring stroke prevention to the spotlight.
posted by jojomfd1 at 06:07 PM on September 23, 2005
There's clearly only one possible solution to this problem.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 08:31 PM on September 23, 2005
I truly thought Johnson would pull out of this.