Sections
Boxing | U.S. Football | Soccer
Excerpt
Boxing is the best-known organized sport in which the infliction
of injury is the main goal, with the inducement of LOC via blows
to the head a prime objective. An epidemiological study of sports
injury (Toth 2008) found that boxing enormously
exceeded all other sports, including U.S. football, in terms of
mTBI incidence. The continued practice of activities encouraging
such goals is of concern to the medical community, and organizations
such as the American Medical Association (1999), Australian
Medical Association (2007), and World Medical Association
(2005) have issued positions advocating the elimination of
boxing. Although there has not been a major controlled scientific
study of boxing and long-term neurological sequelae, and the existing
literature is mixed in terms of findings, there is sufficient evidence
in this ongoing area of research to inform participants of the potential
risks, at least from a conservative standpoint.