Sunday, January 13, 2008 Quijano: Awesome Yosam will be remembered By Jingo Quijano Last Round
(conclusion)
DESPITE, however, all the innovations the sport has implemented in an effort to make it safer, it seems like ring deaths remain to be inevitable.
Danger is the lure of boxing and it will forever be both its attraction and its curse.
MISMATCHES. Even so, what we would like to optimally achieve is to minimize the risk factors and one glaring problem that should be addressed is the proliferation of mismatches.
Mismatches take away a lot from the sport. The fight ceases to become a competitive exercise of skill and power and becomes nothing more than a shameful, despicable beat-down.
Sure, we all love to see knockouts, but when the other guy just doesn’t stand a chance, where is the fun in that? All the medical evaluation and pre-fight testing is of no use if the fighter comes into the ring overmatched and way over his head.
Just last year, our very own Lito Sisnorio lost his life after facing dangerous Chatchai Sasakul in Thailand.
At that time of the fight, Lito was not licensed and reportedly had no clearance to go to Thailand for the bout. Lito had lost 5 of his last 6 bouts coming in, and had no business being in the same ring with a former WBC flyweight champion with a record of 58-3 with 38 KOs.
TOUGH JOB. This is where a promoter’s job becomes difficult. We all know that part of building up a fighter is to test him against “soft” opponents and of course, to pad his record.
Another scenario is when a battle-scarred veteran undergoes a comeback and is matched up easy to allow him to make a decent build up for another title run. The latter obviously was the case with Lito who was the sacrificial lamb for Sasakul. But the same doesn’t appear to hold true for Yosam.
Remember that he won the fight and let’s face it—Amol is no Nonito Donaire Jr. If you recall, our very own WBO minumweight champ Donnie Nietes pulverized him in two rounds in Mandaue City last year.
And this has got me stumped: Coming into the Yosam fight, Amol had just won two of his last nine fights while Yosam was on a five-fight win streak! What gives?
COMPARISON. Another factor that is of major concern aside from ring deaths is the prevalence of long-term brain damage and other health risks associated with boxing.
On this, boxing is as guilty as charged especially since no other sport showcases a virtuoso display of jarring head blows.
Renowned ring physician Dr. Margaret Goodman recently compared boxing and mixed martial arts in terms of safety measures (Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts: A Safety Comparison, The Ring Magazine, August 2006 issue).
According to her, while there have been few reported ring deaths in MMA, what becomes apparent is the fact that the latter is safer since combatants have the option of gaining the win via takedowns and submissions without necessarily going for the knockout.
True, but not all fights in boxing end in knockouts and not all those who died in the ring were knocked out—as in the case of Yosam.
I think it may all come down to a delicate balance of knowing when a fighter has had enough (fight-wise and career-wise) and this does not only entail the referee’s competence but also the acceptance of everybody involved in the sport, from the promoters, to the fans, to the boxer’s immediate family members.
So that we may not have anymore Yo-sams or Litos breaking our hearts.
Let me leave you with this wonderful piece of advice from the good doctor: “Most importantly, boxing purists need to learn a lesson from MMA in appreciating the need to be more accepting when a boxer has had enough in the ring or his corner calls it quits. There is no shame in that, and the act can be in of itself courageous, represent good sportsmanship, and enable us to see the athlete in competition again.
THE LAST ROUND. It’s on another awesome guy, an old friend from my UP Diliman days, Madz Bajarias—a gifted writer and a true bohemian. Cheers!
