

The widow, the fighter and the doctor feature in Dixon’s book.

“Boxing,” Goodman notes, “is a beautiful sickness in so many ways.”
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She tended to fighters in more than 500 professional bouts but, in campaigning for their safety, was burnt out by boxing and so she founded, and is now the president of, Vada – the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association. Those numbers are described as “scary” when I share them with Dr Margaret Goodman, a Las Vegas neurologist who worked as a ringside physician from 1994 to 2005. Now a gym-owner, he estimates he was punched in the head between 40,000 and 50,000 times during his boxing career. Tony Jeffries (right) in action against Kenny Egan at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Jeffries waits anxiously for the consequences. He boxed between the ages of 10 and 27 and, according to his calculations, was punched in the head “between 40,000 and 50,000 times”. Jeffries hopes he “dodged a bullet” called CTE.
#How much dmg to give children pro
Jeffries won an Olympic bronze medal in 2008 and he was an unbeaten pro after 10 bouts when, in 2011, his fragile hands forced his retirement. The 36-year-old is from Sunderland and he and his family are now “living the dream” in Los Angeles where he runs two successful gyms. Pryor died in 2016, aged 60, and his widow explains his deterioration and the salvation boxing once offered. Pryor was friends with Muhammad Ali but The Hawk and The Greatest were both irreparably damaged. He won 39 of his 40 fights, including two unforgettable battles against another legendary boxer, Alexis Argüello, in 19. Aaron Pryor, revered in boxing as The Hawk, was a two-times light-welterweight world champion who fought professionally from 1976 to 1990. The most interesting is Frankie Pryor who tells me how she met her husband in rehab 30 years ago. Dixon’s book reads powerfully because he is such an authority on boxing and he writes about fighters with deep affection and respect.ĭixon also talks to boxing widows. He shows how it was called “punch-drunk syndrome” and “dementia pugilistica” as neurologists struggled to explain the slurred speech, memory loss, shakes, violent mood swings, depression and other symptoms. It is shattering yet tender as Dixon charts the history and science of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a brain condition caused by repeated blows to the head. Dixon, the former editor of Boxing News, now a freelance writer and the host of the Boxing Life Stories podcast, confronts the damage done to fighters with unflinching honesty. Tris Dixon has written the book that boxing has always needed.
