BOXING causes irreversible brain damage in young boxers, even though they have not been fighting for long and show no symptoms of the "punch drunk syndrome" seen among older boxers. So claim scientists at the Royal London Hospital who have examined the brains of two young boxers who died in the ring.
The research, published in next month's, issue of Neuropathology & Applied Neurobiology, has led to renewed calls for tighter controls on boxing. New Scientist magazine described the research as direct evidence that boxing causes "permanent damage to young brains" and called for a ban on under 16s in the sport.
Most of the new evidence comes from the case of a 23 year old boxer who died after a brain haemorrhage. The man, not named, started boxing when he was 11 and had been fighting professionally for four years.
Only three of his 20 senior fights went over six rounds, and his only serious injury was the bone that killed him.
Yet when his brain was examined, the researchers found, in addition to the fatal haemorrhage, irreversible brain damage similar to that seen in the brain of someone who had Alzheimer's disease or the punch drunk syndrome, dementia pugilistica.