Super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa died due to brain damage after a professional gala in Tokyo on August 2.
In Japanese media, one is drawing attention to the weight loss before the weigh-in, which can cause dehydration, as a risk factor, writes AFP. This is because the brain is extra sensitive when the body is dehydrated. But Robert Ludwig, boxing doctor and medically responsible in the Swedish Boxing Federation's medical committee, believes that a hard blow to the head during sparring the day before the match is a more likely cause of brain damage.
If you get a hard blow to the head, the brain has a tendency to swell up and then you are sensitive to the next blow. We are careful during the medical check before the match that the boxers answer honestly if they have received a hard blow to the head the day before. They even have to sign that they deny it, says Ludwig to TT.
Max ten rounds
In Japan, they have, at least temporarily, stopped twelve-round matches. Ten rounds are now the longest professional matches.
I have wanted that all the time, but it's so hard to get rid of twelve rounds internationally. Here in Sweden, we don't have twelve-round matches, says Ludwig.
It's the fatigue that makes the risk of brain damage greater the longer the match lasts.
The muscles become relaxed in the neck and the head flies a bit more when they get a blow. Then you get what we call the contrecoup effect, that if you get a blow, for example, from the front, the brain is hit against the hard membrane in the back and then it can become a bleeding there, says Ludwig.
"Do not allow here"
Boxing has done a lot when it comes to the safety of the boxers and the number of brain damage and deaths has decreased significantly.
Robert Ludwig believes that the most important thing in the safety work to be done in the future is to get even matching.
That you do not match very skilled with those who have already been knocked out before and are old. Uneven matching, that's when it happens, he says.
Abroad, it's very common that a new strong guy gets to start against a really bad one who gets extra money and stands up even though they shouldn't.
