Boxing in collegiate sports?

“It’s brutal in there. The whole objective is to incapacitate someone. Do I miss it? No one likes getting their brains bashed in. I’m good where I’m at now. But once in a great while, I’ll pull up a photo, and remember how it feels to do the bashing. The way the shock of my punch goes up my arms and down my spine. The sound of bones breaking along with spit and blood splattering everywhere.”

Brian Viloria

A month ago, when the Philippine Olympic medalists returned home from a successful campaign in Tokyo, they used their enhanced popularity to plead for the inclusion of boxing (and weightlifting) in collegiate sports. More than half a century ago, boxing was part of college varsity sports. The late sports broadcaster Joe Cantada boxed while in school. Sadly, the sport fell into disrepute among parents because of the inherent dangers in getting hit multiple times.

“In the US, boxing among the youth usually starts with the police. The police set up boxing clubs and gyms,” explains Ryan Songalia, writer for The Ring and co-host of the daily online boxing show “Round By Round.” “A lot of kids can’t get along in a team sports setting, so they get into boxing. It’s often the juvenile delinquents. I was a juvenile delinquent; that’s how I got into boxing.”

In 2007, Sen. Lito Lapid, then chairman of the upper chamber’s Sports Committee, drafted Senate Bill 60, which proposed the creation of a Philippine Boxing Academy, which would be run by the Games and Amusements Board. The academy was meant to be charged with the propagation of boxing as a sport, including at the school level. The bill never became a law. In 2013, high schooler Jonas Garcia died of internal bleeding after a fight. Garcia came from a family of boxers. His death spurred calls to ban youth and school boxing altogether. In the provinces, some smaller schools join boxing competitions, but boxing is not included in the UAAP or NCAA.

A century ago, around the time that boxing became legal in the Philippines, several Filipino boxers died in their early 20’s from brain and other injuries from too much fighting. Dencio Cabanela held three Orient weight division titles simultaneously, and died from a brain hemorrhage. His stablemate, world flyweight champion Pancho Villa, fought between 25 to 28 times a year (more than twice a month). He died from a gum infection. Their compatriot, Clever Sencio, Villa’s opponent in the first all-Filipino world title bout, likewise succumbed to brain bleeding. Since then, pro boxing has done what it can to mitigate the danzgers. When Duk Koo Kim died in hospital after being savagely beaten by Ray Mancini, championships were shortened from 15 to 12 rounds. Gloves became bigger, providing a cosmetic remedy. Medical requirements have become stricter, longer rest periods for boxers who’ve been knocked out were imposed. Then again, Muhammad Ali and the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard are poignant reminders of permanent damage from a life in the ring.

But the concern is at the amateur level where, for the last two decades, the international federation AIBA has been torn between safety and its sagging popularity, and caved in to the latter. AIBA veered towards professional rules, dispensing with head gear and the white, point-scoring portion of the gloves. These made the bouts in the Olympics on down more exciting but also more hazardous. There has been little to no guidance on how beginners would start their journey into the sport. Even if a parent saw pro potential in an offspring, it still seems too dangerous for the young. In the Philippines, many people in cities box merely for recreation or exercise. The great majority of them never get hit back.

Almost 20 years ago, Dr. Bennet Omalu first discovered evidence (microscopic bleeding) connecting head trauma in American football to dementia and eventually, death. He called it Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE. It is not confined to football, though, but is potentially in any sport with repeated impact to the head, like boxing. This was immortalized in Will Smith’s 2015 film, “Concussion.” Given all this evidence, is there anything that could be done to make most parents feel safe enough to let their children get into the ring?