Boxing NZ hits back at call to ban sport
Boxing New Zealand has strongly dismissed the call for boxing to be banned and said it’s ‘‘arguably one of the safest sports in the country’’.
New Zealand Medical Association chairwoman Dr Kate Baddock called for ‘‘an immediate ban on boxing’’ following the death last week of Christchurch man Kain Parsons, who was knocked out at a charity boxing event.
The association said boxing was ‘‘qualitatively different’’ from other sports because of the injuries it causes but Lance Revill, a wellknown New Zealand boxing identity who spoke to Stuff on Thursday, was among those who disagreed with the call for the sport to be banned.
Boxing NZ has also hit back and rejected Baddock’s ‘‘rather abject claims’’, saying the association’s study – pointed out in the New Zealand Medical Journal – was not comprehensive enough in providing clear evidence to support a ban on boxing.
The Journal published research in May that highlighted six out of eight amateur, or professional, boxers presented with early onset dementia and another with dementia, Baddock said.
However, Boxing NZ said the seven of those eight were heavy drinkers and three of them weren’t professional boxers.
A Boxing NZ statement said of those three, one ‘‘played rugby and was knocked out twice, and drank heavily in his youth’’.
The second ‘‘drank heavily throughout his life and had a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. A younger brother also suffered from dementia’’.
And the third was ‘‘a married man who was an amateur boxer and who also got involved in public bar fights when drunk. He was a heavy drinker and smoker, and had a medical history of hypertension’’.
‘‘The study lacks a base line for the individuals to compare the onset of cognitive decline. There are thousands of people in New Zealand suffering from dementia who never have boxed and thousands of people who boxed as amateurs and do not suffer from dementia,’’ the statement continued.
‘‘To draw conclusion from these eight particular cases with a common denominator such as boxing is similar to studying married dementia sufferers, discovering all were married, therefore marriage could be a cause of dementia.
‘‘All cases have other mitigating factors that may have contributed to their conditions.
‘‘The number of people studied is not sufficient to draw a comprehensive scientific conclusion, the social and physical demographics are narrow and the time period (45 months) is a very short time period for such a study to draw a considered opinion.’’
In defence of its ‘‘amateur Olympic style code’’, Boxing NZ said it promoted arguably one of the safest sports in the country and, after citing ‘‘extensive studies’’ from experts from the United States and Sweden, stressed it was safe and well-regulated.
‘‘Amateur boxing should never be lumped in with the unregulated corporate and gym bunny boxing that has established itself around the country nor the professional code.’’
Parsons, 37, died in Christchurch Hospital four days after he was knocked unconscious during a fight against former Canterbury and Tasman Mako halfback Steve Alfeld at Fight for Christchurch on November 3.
It was later revealed that Parsons had taken two weeks off training for the fight because of an incident during sparring.
Boxing NZ chairman Keith Walker said yesterday it wanted to assure people the sport was safe after distancing the governing body from corporate boxing.
‘‘We’ve made it clear that we don’t want to issue licences for corporate events because it’s just a shambles,’’ he said.
‘‘There are too many authorities running things under the name of boxing that have no regulations around it.
‘‘Our rules are so strict, that the events that happened in Christchurch just wouldn’t happen.’’
‘‘There are too many authorities running things under the name of boxing that have no regulations around it.’’ Boxing NZ chairman Keith Walker, left