The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is calling for combat sports like boxing to be banned at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, over concerns the sports are causing “irreversible injury”.
Boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting feature skilled athletes, competing to the best of their ability — but they also feature people trying their hardest to physically injure one another.
Key points:
- AMA vice president Steve Parnis said the sports could cause “irreversible injury”
- Banning boxing would just drive it underground, said champion Danny Green
- Brain Injury Australia executive officer Nick Rushworth said he would not back the AMA’s call
A new position statement from the AMA said it was now against any sport, martial art or activity where the aim is to inflict physical injury.
It defined combat sports as “any sport, martial art or activity in which the primary objective of participants is to strike, kick, hit, grapple with, throw or punch one or more participants”.
“These sports are a public demonstration of interpersonal violence which is unique among sporting activities. Victory is obtained by inflicting on the opponent such a measure of physical injury that the opponent is unable to continue, or which at least can be seen to be significantly greater than is received in return.”
The organisation wants combat sports and martial arts to be completely outlawed for under 18s and for boxing to be banned at the Games.
As an emergency doctor, AMA vice-president Steve Parnis said he had seen too many injuries caused by combat sports like MMA.
“You see a range of injuries but the ones that concern us the most are the ones that affect the brain and the cervical spine,” he said.
“You can see irreversible injury with relatively trivial blows to a head.”
Dr Parnis said the rise of MMA or cage fighting was of particular concern.
“It’s a step backwards, it’s something you would expect from the 19th century,” he said.
“The concussion injuries are very prevalent, even more so we think then boxing because the gloves are almost like bare-fisted fights, and cervical injuries can occur as well.
“I haven’t heard of a case of quadriplegia but I think it’s a matter of time.”
Banning the sport would just send it underground: Danny Green
Luke Jackson represented Australia in boxing at the Olympics and won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2006.
He said he has seen some awful things in boxing.
“I fought up in Toowoomba March 14 … I was the main event up there and the fight before me, Braydon Smith, boxed and I watched a little bit of his fight from the change room,” he said.
“After my fight I was out back in the dressing room and I saw him collapse and then unfortunately he passed away.
“They had to turn his life support off … [it was] a freak accident.”
Jackson said that despite the death, he still completely supported the sport.
“No-one is forcing me to box. I do it for myself. It’s taught me discipline and respect,” he said.
“It’s put me in the position I am in today, I own my own business. It’s helped me and without it I don’t know where I’d be, probably in jail or dead.”
Four time world boxing champion Danny Green echoed Jackson’s comments, saying the sport gave a positive outlet to many young men who were looking for direction in life.
He said banning the sport would only drive it underground, where it could be controlled by criminals, and said he was not against boxers being under 18 as long as bouts were closely monitored and larger gloves were always used.
“I’m against young kids taking blows to the head,” he said.
“It’s a sport which breeds respect and discipline.”
Boxing commentator and journalist Paul Upham said there were ways to minimise risks in the sport.
“It’s been shown that most of the damage that boxers suffer is done in the gymnasium and in training,” he said.
“It’s not so much in the actual fight. We need to have a look at the training and we need to limit the amount of sparring that’s done in training and look at how long they are training for.
“I think that’s just as important as what’s happening in the competitions themselves.”
The AMA should stick to its knitting’
Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) spokesman Mike Tancred said he thought it was unlikely the Olympics or Commonwealth Games would ever outlaw boxing, and that the AMA was unfairly targeting the sport.
“You can suffer concussion from falling off a horse or a surfboard or a bicycle and you really don’t seriously think that we should ban equestrian or surfing or cycling,” he said
Brain Injury Australia executive officer Nick Rushworth said he would not back the AMA’s call for Olympic and Commonwealth Games boxing to be outlawed.
As long as these sports exist you will continue to have young people both men and women who will suffer irreversible injury because the sport is being carried out as it is designed to be.
Dr Steve Parnis
“I just don’t think that banning an organised competitive sport that takes place internationally once every two or three or four years is core business for the AMA,” he said
“I think there’s a great deal of work that could be done in its own backyard in regards to assault related traumatic brain injury from violence outside licensed premises, let alone family violence.
“Three women every week in this country are hospitalised for traumatic brain injury as the result of family violence.
“I think that in some respects in this regard the AMA should stick to its knitting.”
Dr Parnis said his organisation was facing an uphill battle to get any of these sports outlawed in Australia.
“These things have been around for decades if not centuries. There are some very strong interests that want them to be maintained,” he said.
“But the AMA’s bottom line is that we are there to promote Australia’s health, and as long as these sports exist you will continue to have young people both men and women who will suffer irreversible injury because the sport is being carried out as it is designed to be.
“And that’s where we have a fundamental problem.”