Dazed and on the Canvas Again : Boxing is in trouble after four deaths--but remedies are achievable

Jimmy Garcia died of a brain injury this month, 13 days after his title fight with super-featherweight champion Gabriel Ruelas of Sylmar. Because the Colombian was the fourth boxer to die of head injuries in the last 14 months, there has been a renewed chorus of demands that boxing be banned.

We have a different perspective: Maybe this lopsided fight should never have taken place. Maybe there was only one way that Garcia should have been allowed anywhere near a ring in which Ruelas was fighting: as a spectator. This contest was just the kind of mismatch that can lead to tragic consequences, and to demands for boxing’s end. (Some boxing aficionados say that if tragedy is to be the measure, surely there must be a ban on auto racing, which kills far more people than boxing every year.)

Garcia was indeed ranked in the top 10 of his weight class by two major sanctioning bodies. But rankings sometimes are no true evaluation of a fighter. Garcia had fought another, less highly regarded champion last November and lost. This month he was pitted against a member of the boxing elite: Some experts consider titleholder Ruelas to be one of the best in the world, pound for pound, regardless of weight class.

Garcia had to lose 30 pounds in two months to qualify for the Ruelas fight--nearly 19% of his 160 pounds. Sure, boxers are in far better shape than most of us, but the beating Garcia took suggested that his strength and stamina had been compromised.

Headgear for boxers might be a benefit, but one guaranteed to prevent brain damage is yet to be invented. Obviously, more research is needed.

In the meantime, it would greatly help if the sport were placed under an above-reproach, national-level governing body with the authority to demand the best physical and neurological testing. It would rank fighters on the basis of their real health and talent. It would not allow a fight unless each boxer had started his training within reasonable reach of a weight class. It could underwrite research on headgear and other safety equipment. Above all, it would do everything humanly possible to ensure that every fighter who entered the ring came out alive.