Boxing has always been a popular sport because of its action, but recent information about head injuries has caused some to start the long-term feasibility of this sport. The goal of boxing, after all, is to knock your opponent out to gain a victory. As evidence of brain damage in boxers continues to build, there is definitely a need to understand the various injury statistics that have been accumulating over the years.
Statistics on Boxing Brain Damage
1. 90% of boxers will experience at least one brain injury during their career.
2. Archaeological discoveries of ancient cave drawings and other art suggest that boxing-like competition dates back as far as 3000 BC.
3. Boxing was outlawed in many American states in the mid-1800’s.
4. The force of a professional boxer’s fist is equivalent to being hit with a 13-pound bowling ball traveling 20 miles per hour.
5. The first mouthpiece was used during a professional fight in 1915.
6. The first amateur Golden Gloves championship was held in 1926.
7. There are 17 weight classes in professional male boxing, but anyone above 200 pounds fights in the same weight class.
8. From January of 1960 to August of 2011, there were 488 boxing-related deaths.
9. The percentage of boxing deaths that are related to brain damage that occurs: 66%.
10. In several studies, 15-40% of ex-boxers at any given time have been found to have symptoms of chronic brain injury.
11. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in children and adults from ages 1 to 44.
12. Boxing was used as a combat training tool during World War I.
13. At least 5.3 million Americans, 2% of the U.S. population, currently live with disabilities resulting from a TBI injury, including boxing related injuries.
14. Men are twice as likely to suffer from a TBI than women during the course of a boxing match.
15. There has been an average of 10 boxing deaths per year since 1900.
16. A chemical called neurofilament light, which is released when nerve cells are damaged, is 4x higher than normal in boxers after a fight.
17. With 15 high impact blows to the head, neurofilament light levels can be 8x higher.
18. Brain tissue that becomes damaged from boxing stays damaged permanently.
19. 18 out of 82 professional boxers in a recent study had a significantly impaired performance in information processing and verbal fluency 1 month after a knockout.
20. In a Swedish study on boxing brain injuries, up to 80% of the boxers exhibited protein changes that can be an indicator of brain damage, even though none of them had experienced a knockout.
21. 1 out of every 5 boxers, both amateur and professional, will suffer from a traumatic brain injury at some point in their career.
22. 17% of retired professional boxers exhibit chronic TBI symptoms.
23. More than 18,000 children and teens participate in amateur boxing and concussions account for as many as 51.6% of amateur boxers’ injuries.
24. During a 19-year study by Nationwide Children’s Hospital, an average of 8,700 boxing injuries were treated in United States emergency departments each year.
25. The number of children treated for boxing-related injuries annually at hospitals: 2,500.
26. Children as young as 6 years old are routinely treated in emergency departments at hospitals for boxing injuries.
27. Between 1990-2008, boxing-related injuries increased by 200% in every year.
28. 23% of the total injuries that are treated in professional settings from boxing are head and neck related.
29. The rate of closed head injuries from boxing is remarkably static across all age demographics at 8-10%.
30. Up to 20% of professional boxers develop neuropsychiatric sequelae.
31. Unlike MMA, boxers have a specific count that allows them to get to their feet in order to continue the match at the referee’s discretion.
32. The two age groups at highest risk for TBI are 0-4 year olds and 15-19 year olds.
33. Direct medical costs and indirect costs such as lost productivity of traumatic brain injuries totaled an estimated $60 billion in the United States in 2000.
34. About 40% of those hospitalized with a boxing brain injury had at least one unmet need for services one year after their injury.
35. Despite the financial gains of boxing, George Foreman has made more money selling his grills than for his boxing career in which he was a 2-time heavyweight champion.
36. Boxing gloves are actually more dangerous and result in more deaths than bareknuckle boxing. John Sullivan once fought a bareknuckled fight that lasted 75 rounds.
37. In professional boxing the record for most career knockouts is, 131 in 219 fights.
38. Female boxing was first featured in the 1904 Olympics as an exhibition event.
39. Boxing was first recognized as a formal competitive sport during the 23rd Olympiad in 688 BC.
Brain Damage Awareness
The beginning of brain damage awareness started in the minds of many when Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame several years ago on international television. Perhaps the greatest boxer in history, the frailty he displayed with the tremors of Parkinson’s made many begin to question the feasibility of boxing and its future. If parents aren’t letting their children play football because of the threat of head injuries, then the same is definitely true of boxing.
That’s not to say that there aren’t components of boxing that aren’t beneficial. Athletes need to be in an excellent physical condition in order to be competitive in this sport. They must have excellent eating habits and be able to take care of their bodies so that they are able to adequately perform. If it was possible to remove the head injury component of boxing from the sport, we would be praising the healthy habits that could develop from it.
Instead, boxing has driven some men into comas, caused others to bite off ears, and in one tragic incident, caused a boxer’s brain to be detached from his skull in the middle of the bout. The threat of boxing just isn’t with the impact of a fist to the head. There are a number of additional ways that brain injuries can occur from boxing. Even just the snapping of the neck to create a whiplash effect is enough to create a brain injury that can cause a permanent impairment. Then there’s the chronic damage that may occur and the CTE that may develop, which can put the boxer at an even greater health risk.
The success stories of boxing definitely outweigh the tragedies, but that doesn’t change the fact that the dangers of this sport have negatively affected the lives of many families over the years.
What the Facts Mean
As the statistics show, having children boxing is probably an even worse idea than having them play football. Having a traumatic brain injury as a child can greatly impair that child’s ability to have an active and fulfilling life.
There are certainly other sports that are played today that have an even greater risk of a brain injury. Mixed martial arts fits into that category. There is also a danger that comes with playing sports that an injury will occur. These things do happen, but injuries can happen anywhere. Someone who steps up onto a platform to have their picture taken with a group of co-workers can tear their ACL or fall and wind up with a TBI just like someone can in sports. The difference is in the odds.
Someone playing sports is more at risk of developing an injury than the person who doesn’t play sports. Those who play high injury risk sports, such as boxing, are more likely than people in lower risk sports to suffer a brain injury.
The unique nature of boxing doesn’t help matters any. Participants are directly rewarded for punches that land on the face, head, and neck. This increases the chances of a potentially devastating injury and requires us to begin thinking about taking injury prevention measures. Amateurs have taken the step of wearing headgear and boxing gloves are padded, but that doesn’t change the powerful impacts that can occur. The human brain can be just as injured from a whiplash injury as it can be from a direct impact injury.
Outside of the mandatory mouthguards and other safety equipment, there isn’t an easy answer that can preserve the integrity of the sport as it stands and provide an added measure of safety to those who earn their living or have a passion for boxing. With the differences in head injuries between MMA and boxing, maybe the answer is to change the standing counts and replace them with immediate referee stoppages if a boxer is unable to properly defend him or herself.
Many would like to see this sport just go away because it is so dangerous. That might be the path it is headed down if comprehensive safety measures aren’t found to limit the amount of boxing brain damage that continues to occur.