News item: British Boxer Paul Ingle in coma after
title fight. The usual worms call for the abolition of boxing.
It happens every time.
A boxer gets serious hurt in the ring, and out from under every
conceivable rock comes the predictable cry “Let’s Ban Boxing”.
On Saturday night, December 16, at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield
England, IBF featherweight champ Paul Ingle collapsed in the ring after
being knocked out 20 seconds.
Ingle was floored late in the 11th round by three vicious left hooks. His
brave trainer, Steve Pollard, admitted it was a mistake to let Ingle fight
the 12th round.
"In hindsight he should have been pulled out at the end of the 11th.
But we haven't got that gift," Pollard said. "He came and sat
down and I asked him if he was OK and he said he was. I told him he was
losing the fight and he said I'm going to go out and stop him. He
was totally coherent and understood everything that was going on. I had no
trepidation in sending him back out."
Yeah right. A guy who had just taken a beating for 11 rounds was
“totally coherent” and “understood everything that was going on.”
But more on that later.
Seconds into the 12th and final round, Ingle was floored by a
vicious left uppercut. Referee Dave Parris immediately waved his hands
over his head, stopping the fight. Ingle was surrounded by his cornermen
and appeared to be regaining his senses. Then he then lost consciousness
and had to be attended to by three paramedics at ringside, where he was
given oxygen, then taken to the Northern General Hospital. Ingle was
later transferred to Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital for a
two–an–a–half–hour operation to remove a
blood clot on the brain.
As of this writing, Ingle has opened his eyes and seems to be making
improvement. But he certainly will never fight again.
Then the cockroaches stating coming out of the corners. The first was the
British Medical Association.
A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said: "There are
many sporting activities that carry a danger but what's unique about
boxing is that the whole point of the sport is to render your opponent
unconscious and that leads to brain damage.The BMA finds it impossible to
justify deliberately causing damage to the brain and the eye. The effects
are cumulative so the more often you fight the more chance you have of
being injured.”
"We have a very long standing policy of opposing boxing. We would
ultimately like to see it banned but it will only happen if there's a
change in the law and in public opinion.”
A cooler talking-head was Simon Block, of the British Boxing Board of
Control. Block said injury was part of the sport. "To say it should
be banned, when there are far more dangerous sports out there, is
ridiculous,"
he said. "I didn't hear much from the BMA when five people died
three-day eventing.”
Whatever three-day eventing is. But it sure sounds dangerous.
The next slugs to chime in for the abolition of boxing was the World
Medical Association which operates out of Geneva, Switzerland.
Doctors and numbered bank accounts? Could be a connection.
Delon Human, secretary-general of the World Medical Association, said,
“Boxing is quite unlike any other sport in that the basic intent is to
cause bodily harm to the opponent. It is impossible to participate in
boxing
without being hurt. It cannot fairly be described as a sport; it is simply
a barbaric practice.”
And this guy calls himself “Human?”
But the best and brassiest remarks came from Paul Flynn, the
Labour MP for Newport West, who said he would try to abolish the legal
protection afforded to fighters in a Private Members Bill.
“Allowing boxers to be charged with assault or even murder would
discourage blows to the head and could lead to a rule change,” Flynn
said.
That’s right, dumbo. Now let’s arrest all boxers who actually hit
their opponents with their gloved fists.
Why don’t we just give the fighters water balloons instead? But then
these morons would then try to figures out a way to ban water balloons
too. Maybe even ban water, you idiots.
British Sports Minister Kate Hoey hit the nail on the old head when
she said talk of banning boxing is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction
from a bunch of pompous jerks. My words not hers.
Ms Hoey actually said, “We recognize boxing is a dangerous sport, like
any other sport, and we do not think it should be banned. All sport to a
certain extent is risky. There are a lot of people who don't like boxing,
and I understand that. I happen to think amateur boxing in particular is
very, very important and good for young people, and I have been involved
in it in my own constituency. But I think it is very important that the
people who don't like the sport realize banning it would not necessarily
help because what would happen in lots of areas is it would go
underground. To come out now and call for a ban on boxing is not really
the way that I believe we should be having a rational discussion about
it,''
Ah. A rational discussion. What a unique idea.
The fact is Ms. Hoey is right. Ban boxing and people will be fighting on
barges like they did at the end of the 19th century. No regulation. No
ringside doctors. No paramedics. And no nearby ambulances.
The fact is, what happened to Paul Ingle could have only been prevented by
his brave corner, who tapped him on his rear end, and sent him out for the
12th and final round, with his only chance of victory being his opponent
being taken out by a sniper’s bullet. Brave trainers and brave managers
kill more fighters than brain-scrambling left hooks, or right crosses to
the chops.
How about this for a new rule change? The next time a fighter, who has
already taken a beating in a fight, is sent out for final round that sends
him into a coma, or makes him meet his maker sooner than was required,
charge that fighter’s entire corner with a crime.
Make the corner face a judge and jury. Let the judge and jury decided the
seriousness of the corner’s crime, the proper culpability and what the
suitable punishment should be.
Do that and brave corners will become extinct. Less fighters will be
seriously hurt, and that’s exactly what right minded boxing people are
trying to do, without simplemindedly banning the sport.
But to do this takes balls on the part of people with the power.
John McCain, where are you when we really need you?
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