by Jordan Capobianco: I’m probably one stupid American to be putting myself in the middle of this mess. But as an American watching 2 British boxers, I didn’t really have a proverbial horse in the race. I haven’t seriously rooted for a boxer from the U.K. since Lennox Lewis. Of course, I had heard of Carl Froch. Everyone has. He’s been around long enough. Fought enough names. Had more than enough championship bouts. I saw him lose to Ward, I saw him return to glory by beating Kessler, Mack, and Bute. Before the Groves fight was announced, I was even telling people I thought Froch deserved a rematch with Ward. I had respect for Froch.
But I had respect for George Groves, also. I watched Groves beat every opponent he’s fought since Glen Johnson. I was impressed by his stuff. I agreed that he was one of, if not the, most promising prospects in the world. I was surprised when the Froch fight was announced because I didn’t really think Groves, with only 19 professional fights under his belt, was ready for a name like Froch . My instinct was that Froch would probably win because Groves had bitten off more than he could chew.
Coincidentally, I had also heard of Francisco “Frankie” Leal, who recently died 3 days after suffering a brain injury in the ring. I had heard of Magomed Abdusalamov, who had a similar brain injury in the ring earlier this month and is still in the hospital, in grave condition, more than 3 weeks later. I had heard of Duk Koo Kim and Benny “Kid” Paret and a number of other unfortunate casualties of the sweet science. This is boxing, not checkers. This isn’t a game. There are risks.
And then the fight happened. And Groves took control in the first. And it was a brawl, back and forth, big shot after big shot, two guys literally trying to put each other down for the count. And after the knockdown in the first, Froch was coming back with big shots, and it was a war. And as the fighters started to clinch, and started to tire, and the fight was heading toward a culmination as the punishment accrued, the ref stopped it. And I, personally, was shocked. Not because I had loyalty to one fighter or another. Not because the announcers were shocked. I just didn’t feel the fight was over yet. Both men had been in trouble, both men had tried to clinch and buy time, and the man who “couldn’t continue” wasn’t even the man who had been knocked down.
So what do we do about it? What do we do about fighters like Leal and Abdusalamov? What do we do about the fact that referees are largely stuck between a rock and a hard place, facing stern criticism if either fighter winds up seriously injured, and facing equally stern criticism if they stop the fight before the crowd agrees that it’s over?
I have one answer: Not this.
The human body is funny. A fighter with a good chin can take a shot and be unaffected, whereas another fighter with a less solid chin might be unconscious from the same shot. What causes a bit of a “buzz” for one fighter can turn into a devastating brain injury for another. We might not like it, but the fact is that this sport, like many other sports, carries with it an inherent risk of permanent bodily injury.
That risk should not be dealt with by having faith in the frequently inconsistent and unreliable observations of referees, particularly when there are a number of other solutions available to the sport.
In my opinion, every governing body should require fighters to undergo the best, most rigorous drug testing for performance-enhancing drugs available, at random during the buildup to a fight, as well as post-fight. Every fight should have a 3-knockdown rule. Every fight should have a mandatory 8-count. Boxing could increase the padding requirements of the gloves. It could force professional fighters to wear headgear. The risk of serious injury will be there to some degree regardless, but if we want to make boxing safer, this is how to do it.
Relying on referees is not enough. Relying on the chief second to throw the towel is not enough. All human beings make errors, no human being can see everything, and eyewitness observations are frequently far from reliable. As long as we continue to almost exclusively rely on referees for the safety of the fighters in the ring while ignoring other options available, we will continue to see some fights stopped too soon, others not stopped at all even though they should be, and it will all continue to be a big, inconsistent mess. The governing bodies of boxing can’t fix the problem entirely, but they could at least do what they can. And they haven’t yet.
Until they do, boxing will be no more safe and grow less and less popular with each bad call. And that is something nobody wants.
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