Why is Boxing a Dangerous Sport?
Boxing is one of the oldest and most popular fighting styles, spread in every corner of the world. It is by far the most popular combat sport that has millions of practitioners all across the world. But, how safe is boxing really? Or in other words, what are the dangers of boxing?
Despite it being the most popular combat sport, boxing has a bad reputation for being very dangerous. Yes sports like MMA have a much higher injury rate, but these are not usually serious injuries when you look closer at the data. Boxing is, by far the worst when it comes to long-term bad injuries like head traumas or CTE. And this is one of the reasons why sweet science has such a high death rate compared with other arts.
Stay with us to find out more about the dangers of boxing and how we can maybe make it safer in the future. If you want to know more about how long it takes to learn boxing check out our article going in more depth.
Boxing is all about head strikes
On average, boxers throw 65 strikes per round or around 780 per 12 round fights. Bear in mind that most of these punches land to the head, which is crazy. Things get even scarier when you see that most elite boxers land with over 40% accuracy or more. This is the main reason why, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 90% of all boxers sustain a traumatic brain injury in their careers.
Boxing is not a versatile sport like MMA or Muay Thai, no, it is actually very simple. Boxers use “just” their hands to strike, and they are not allowed to punch below the waist. They can strike the opponent's upper body area, with the head being the main target.
As a result, boxers receive more head strikes than in any other combat sport out there. MMA, for instance, is a versatile sport where fighters can grapple, clinch and fight on the ground. It includes far less head strikes than boxing.
Boxing teaches you many skills, but the only two main weapons are your hands. This means that boxers spend their entire career working on improving the strength, speed, and power of their punches. They do this just so that they can blast the opponent in the head hundreds of times on fight night.
Receiving this many strikes per fight, per year, or per career leads to serious brain damage, eye damage, or even mental health disorders. And we don’t have to bring up facial or body injuries like fractures or deep cuts.
A 10 second count is very dangerous
Once a boxer gets knocked down in a fight, the referee would start counting from 1 to 10, which is a time he/she can use to recover. In many cases, we have seen fighters recovering from very bad ones and winning a fight. Look no further from how Tyson Fury got back from that knockdown against Deontay Wilder. I mean, the Gypsy King was out cold but he somehow managed to get back up and finish the fight strong.
But this is a huge problem when we are talking about the dangers of boxing. You see, most knockdowns cause some type of brain injury like a concussion. As you would expect, 10 seconds is not enough to recover from this type of brain injury. Things get even more dangerous when a fighter gets back to their feet, and then gets knocked down once again, this time out cold. This second knockdown can lead to serious, serious brain damage.
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Bear in mind that fighters can get knocked down up to three times in a single round and recover. 10s count in boxing is not the right way to recover from a concussion, it’s simply not enough time. It only increases the risk of serious brain damage.
What are the most common injuries in boxing?
Most common injuries involve head traumas, eyes, and body injuries. This is because boxers use just their hands to strike the upper body area, notably the head. Boxing also causes “light” injuries like cuts or small fractures. But the risk of serious injuries like brain traumas is really high. Here are the most common injuries in boxing:
- Head injuries — as said earlier, around 90% of boxers suffer a brain injury at some point in their careers. In most cases, we are talking about cumulative brain damage caused by absorbing repeated strikes. A hard punch to the head can damage the surface of the brain, cause bleeding inside the brain, or tear nerve networks.
- Body Injuries — body punches play a big role in boxing. One of the most famous is a punch to the liver that hurts like hell. Some other injuries are shoulder dislocations, broken hands, or ribs.
- Facial Injuries — these are, perhaps, the most common injuries you just can’t avoid in boxing. We are talking about deep cuts that cause severe bleeding, broken nose, orbital bone, or teeth.
- Hand injuries — these injuries are quite common as boxers use just their hands to strike. Throwing 700 punches per match will, at some point, end up in a painful injury. Most common are wrist sprains, broken fingers, or hand fractures.
How many boxers have died in a match?
Around 1900 boxers have died as a result of injuries sustained in a boxing match from 1884 to 2021. There were many deaths before 1890. But we can’t count these because back then because boxers fought bare-knuckle and without the rules. The famous “Queensberry Rules,” which are still in place today, came in 1884 so this is why we used this year as a starting point.
The worst year was 1953 when 22 boxers died in a single year due to the injuries they sustained in the ring. Although we lack the modern data, some studies show that there are 0.13 deaths per 1,000 participants per year (study from 2009). And on average, around 13 boxers die per year according to “The Manuel Velazquez Boxing Fatality Collection”.
Is boxing more dangerous than MMA?
If we stick with the data, studies have shown that boxing is more dangerous than MMA fighting. Boxing leads to more serious injuries like head traumas. According to one study, 7.1% of all boxers get knocked out and suffer from a concussion, which is more than in MMA where that number is 4.2%.
Although this may sound weird at first, the reason is very simple. MMA is a more versatile sport where fighters can throw kicks, punches, grapple, and fight in the clinch or on the ground. Thus, studies have shown that MMA includes more “light” injuries than boxing such as cuts, bruises, or small fractures. These are the injuries that do not take much time to heal and won’t affect your health in the long run. But when it comes to serious injuries that can impact your life, boxing is more dangerous.
Is bare knuckle more dangerous than boxing?
According to the studies, bare knuckle boxing is, in fact, safer than boxing with gloves. The study performed in a two and a half year time span showed that bare knuckle boxing includes a lower risk of concussions than boxing with gloves.
For instance, the ringside physician reports showed that 1.5% of bare-knuckle boxers had symptoms of concussion after the fight. This is a much lower rate than in boxing with gloves where that number varies from 6–12%.
On the other side, bare-knuckle boxing leads to far more facial lacerations and other injuries that do not take much time to heal. There are far more cuts, severe bleeding, broken noses, and hands, and that’s why it looks so brutal on TV. But overall, studies have shown that bare-knuckle boxing is less dangerous than MMA and boxing with gloves.
The main reason is that it’s very easy to break your hand when you are punching bare-knuckle. Or in other words, fighters can’t use 100% of their power all the time, and you can’t hit the skull too many times without breaking your hand. The gloves allow you to throw as many punches and use as much power you want without thinking much about the injuries. This is why bare-knuckle has a much lower rate of concussions than boxing.
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