Patrick Day’s death is a tragic reminder of dangers faced in a weight-driven sport MCGUIGAN

THIRTY-SEVEN years on from the tragic death of Young Ali, I still shudder when a boxer loses his life as a result of injuries sustained in the ring.

It has been a terrible 18 months for our sport with the tragic Patrick Day the sixth boxer to leave us in that period.

It is almost always the same, the fatal blows coming at the end of hard fights when exhausted bodies are drained of every last drop of resistance.

Fatalities occur in divisions where boxers are required to make weight and we know enough now about the importance of hydration and the dangers associated with rapid weight loss to be concerned.

The brain is protected by fluids. When the balance of fluids changes as a result of extreme dieting in the lead-up to fights, boxers are thought to be more vulnerable. But no one knows what the chemical limit is.

The problem is rooted in a culture where fighters seek any advantage, squeezing the weight to be as light as they can to give themselves an edge.

Thus a boxer who walks around at middleweight, 160lb, might shrink to welterweight (147) for the purposes of the weigh-in then, 24 hours later, enter the ring almost as a middleweight again. When I fought at feather-weight, (9st, or 126lb) I walked around at 10st 4lb, then that became 10st 7lb, 10st 10lb, and it became harder to make weight.

The whole process is horrible, eating little and training. The problem is you can’t spar for 10 rounds with the heartrate at 80/90 per cent of maximum without refuelling. So fighters leave it late to shed the pounds. The vast majority make it safely.

Since all fighters do this you might ask why bother? Why not just fight at your biological weight? The fact is sportsmen will always try to seek an advantage where they can. Ultimately, responsibility lies with the fighter, his manager and his coach to manage the process safely.

When I fought Young Ali (below) I weighed in on the day of the fight. The weigh-in was moved forward 24 hours after a spate of deaths in the Eighties to allow fighters time to rehydrate.

The problem is it is not always achievable in cases of extreme weight loss. The WBC are trying to implement a rule that states fighters must be within a certain percentage of the weight 30 days out, two weeks out and seven days out to make the process safer.

The British Boxing Board of Control operates a week out and then a three-day check to ensure you are within a regulated percentage. Perhaps this should be universally applied.

In any sport at the highest level you are on the edge. At elite level in boxing opponents have power, intelligence and craft. They hit harder and are harder to hit. Mistakes at the top are paid for.

In extreme cases, as we have seen to our cost, this can be fatal.

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