Injuries in sports are a very common occurrence. When you look at a variety of sports, there are numerous ways the athletes are protected. In football, there are helmets, shoulder pads, and knee pads. In baseball, they have helmets but in boxing there is little to no protective gear used. A mouth guard and a groin protector is what you get and you are on your way.
With little protective gear in boxing, boxers have four different things to rely on for their protection: their defense, their corner, the referee and the ringside doctor. Should any of the four fail to do their job (which is supposed to be in the best interest of their fighter’s health) the end results could be dangerous or even disastrous for the fighter whether it shows up now or in the future.
Yesterday on HBO’s Pay Per View some of the fighters safety was at risk due to the punishment they obtained from their opponents.
Brian Viloria fought bravely against pound for pound king Roman Gonzalez, but it was clear from the early rounds that he was overmatched
and over powered. Viloria took so many brain rattling shots (with many of those shots going unanswered) that his defense nor his corner stopped the fight. The referee had to step in, and that was seemed like it happened too late.
David Lemieux fought bravely but cautiously against Gennady Golovin, but he took more hits than he should have. Golovkin has tremendous power, and it showed with every punch (Lemieux’s hair helped with the effects as well). After going down and being constantly rocked nothing was done to protect the fighter. True he is heavy handed, and a single punch could change the fight but that punch wasn’t being thrown. Lemieux’s corner did nothing to protect him, and the doctors only concern was a possible broken nose. The fight didn’t get called until Lemieux looked at the referee after being rocked. Lemieux stated in the post fight that he didn’t know why the fight was stopped, but it was clear he felt for his safety.
The filter that suffered the most on Saturday has to be Prichard Colon. After Colon had suffered the first loss of his career, he had to be rushed to the hospital due to bleeding of the brain. In the hospital, he received surgery to relieve the bleeding and is in a coma fighting for his life. If he survives who knows how things will turn out for him?
It’s not wrong to stop a fight for safety/health precautions. Fighters can go to war and toe to toe for an entire twelve rounds but if one guy is taking a lot of unnecessary punishment, there is more than one person that has a responsibility of calling things off. The fighters have more than just their record to hold on to. Many of them have families that they want to be able to grow old with and enjoy their time without any medical issues getting in the way. Let’s not forget what happened to Magomed Abdusalamov.
“Prichard Colon became symptomatic in his dressing room following his bout with Terrel Williams Saturday afternoon at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, VA. Within moments, he was under the care of EMTs and was rushed to Inova Fairfax Hospital. He suffered a brain bleed as a result of an injury during the bout and underwent immediate surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. His condition remains critical. Prichard’s family has requested that their privacy be respected at this time. Updates will be provided when appropriate. We ask that everyone join us in praying for Prichard and his family.”
– Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment
