Tuesday, October 09, 2007 Echaves: Taking cues By Lelani P. Echaves Thinking Aloud
HOW the Pacquiao-Barrera fight yesterday (Philippine time) ended was a downer for some. They had expected Barrera to be over and out after six rounds. And they had expected “Pacman” to send Barrera home with a KO.
Others said the Pacquiao-Barrera fight lost its initial thrill. Barrera was no longer the WBC Super Featherweight champion. We watched to witness how Pacquiao, “the Philippines’ national treasure,” would once again do his country proud.
Barrera has retired from boxing. After 18 years in the ring, he deserves it.
His record is no mean feat — 71 total fights, 63 wins, 42 knockouts. Besides, he has retained his good looks, unlike a crushed beer can.
Barrera’s exit will clearly please the British Medical Association (BMA) which has waged a decade-old crusade to ban boxing. Aside from acute injury, there’s chronic brain damage sustained cumulatively rather than in one recorded instance. Also, a survey of British neurologists revealed associations of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (commonly known as punch-drunk syndrome) with 294 boxers, as compared to 12 jockeys, five soccer players, two rugby players, two wrestlers and one parachutist.
BMA is alarmed over the death of 140 boxers worldwide since 1990 because of injuries sustained during training or in bouts. Eighty percent of professional boxers have serious brain scarring. The damage may, however, not show up until the boxer has retired. Many retired boxers suffer from neurodegenerative disorders which include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and brain traumas like dementia pugilistica. These are caused by repetitive blows to the head, and the symptoms start showing between six and 40 years after a boxer starts his career. On the average, onset is about 16 years.
Symptoms include speech difficulty, involuntary nodding of the head, hand tremors, leg dragging, memory loss, shuffling gait, dizziness and mental deterioration. Classic cases are Muhammad Ali (pugilistic Parkinson’s) and Wilfred Benitez (dementia pugilistica).
Ali became Olympic gold medal winner, North American Boxing Federation champion, and three-time heavyweight boxing champion. Benitez, at 17, became the youngest boxer to win a world title, and the youngest ever to win three world titles — WBA junior welterweight, WBC welterweight, and WBC super welterweight.
Boxing promoters and aficionados quickly defend that head guards or shorter rounds make boxing safer. The BMA, however, says these are not enough.
When a boxer receives blows, his brain moves within the skull, thus causing damage to blood vessels, nerves and brain tissue. Most boxing deaths are caused by acute brain hemorrhage.
If Muhammad Ali and Wilfred Benitez are too distant for Pacquiao, perhaps he could take a cue from his own trainer Freddie Roach. BMA-listed as among the famous sufferers, Roach admits that his last five fights as a boxer caused his punch-induced Parkinson’s disease (http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/3482/freddie-roach-takes-center-stage).
