[ThePundit]

Mike Quarry died at age 55 of pugilistic dimentia. His brother Jerry died of the same disease. Ali's Parkinsons was also pugilistically induced. Does anyone think boxing should be banned?

[legend]

Although it is doing a great job of dying on its own, I don't think you can ban boxing. If you got rid of it because of the deaths, injuries, and lingering effects years later, you would also have to ban any sport where deaths occur. Car racing immediately comes to mind. Nobody is making people become boxers, it is the individual's decision. While I am typing this, cigarettes have probably killed 4 or 5 people somewhere in the world. Boxing has done a better job in recent years of stopping fights; if you watch footage of the beatings that the Quarrys used to take, you can see why they both met a similar fate. Boxing needs to be regulated by one governing body, not the rats that run it now, looking to make a buck on the backs of the fighters.

[MJHMarc]

I don't think so.

This is one of the major commitments an athlete must agree to before he gets into the ring. If he doesn't want to suffer from injuries in the present or later on, he has no business playing. Since I am not a boxing fan, I can not relate to this subject with any statistical or knowledgable reference.

Wrestling also comes to mind now, when discussing the dangers and risk of injury in professional sports/entertainment. Wrestling is a form of entertainment in which the athletes/actors put their lives on the line. Even though the wooden tables may be fake, it still hurts which means that they can still break their back. If you were slammed onto even a padded mat twice a week for an hour, I would suspect that your back would start to hurt. That brings me back to my lead sentence, this is one of the major commitments an athlete must agree to before he gets into the ring.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by ThePundit

Mike Quarry died at age 55 of pugilistic dimentia. His brother Jerry died of the same disease. Ali's Parkinsons was also pugilistically induced. Does anyone think boxing should be banned?

How about just wearing the headgear?

[Lefty Noob]

Originally Posted by Gotham Dark Knight

How about just wearing the headgear?

Aha! Yes, we have a winner! I'd love to see pro boxing use the Olympic style headgear. Not only would it make the sport safer, I think it'd make it better as well, more watchable. And it'd allow great fighters to stay in better shape longer, since they wouldn't be taking quite so much punishment to the head.

[ThePundit]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Aha! Yes, we have a winner! I'd love to see pro boxing use the Olympic style headgear. Not only would it make the sport safer, I think it'd make it better as well, more watchable. And it'd allow great fighters to stay in better shape longer, since they wouldn't be taking quite so much punishment to the head.

That's a suggestion that makes sense Lefty but it will never happen. Since boxing depends on dynamic personality to sell what's left of its sport, they need the person in plain view. Would Mike Tyson have been as menacing and as intriguiging with the headgear? Would Ali toying with opponents have been as entertaining with headgear? Not quite. So the promoters of the sport would never let that happen.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by ThePundit

That's a suggestion that makes sense Lefty but it will never happen. Since boxing depends on dynamic personality to sell what's left of its sport, they need the person in plain view. Would Mike Tyson have been as menacing and as intriguiging with the headgear? Would Ali toying with opponents have been as entertaining with headgear? Not quite. So the promoters of the sport would never let that happen.

The Olympics still draw...Tefilio Stevenson was still a class heavu weight...Sugar Ray was not any worse for the headgear...etc...

Maybe the public that wants to plain see blood...but boxing has its shares of problems as it is...and how many belts are there these days?

Maybe boxing needs Vince McMahon?...