Minister rejects boxing ban

Ingle gets attention in between rounds at Sheffield

Boxing will not be banned in the wake of the life-threatening injury suffered by Paul Ingle.

Despite a growing list of tragedies in the ring, Health Secretary Alan Milburn said the government would resist calls for the sport to be outlawed.

"I want to see every possible measure taken to make sure that boxing continues as a sport that is as safe as humanly possible," he said.

"This is a terrible situation and all of our thoughts are with Paul Ingle and his family. Let's hope he makes a full recovery as soon as possible."

Cumulative

Ingle is fighting for his life after undergoing brain surgery to remove a blood clot following his IBF featherweight title fight against South Afrcan Mbulelo Botile at Sheffield.

The 28-year-old Yorkshireman remains in a critical situation in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

Every time someone is hit on the head they get a minor degree of brain injury

  Vivienne Nathanson

Vivienne Nathanson, of the British Medical Association, has called for a complete ban on boxing.

"There are occasional tragedies like this one where someone is killed or critically injured, but there is in addition to that the chronic problem that every time someone is hit on the head they get a minor degree of brain injury," she said.

"That becomes cumulative and we can't repair the damage to the brain. In the extreme you get severe Parkinson's disease or punch-drunk syndrome.

"We think that the sport needs to be banned completely, because there is no safe form of boxing."

Ms Nathanson dismissed the value of the inquiry currently being carried out by the boxing authorities into the Ingle fight.

Brain damage

"What they are looking at is whether medical treatment was administered quickly enough and whether the fight was stopped early enough," she said.

"The fact is that once the damage is done, you can't repair it anyway.

Maloney is against use of headguards

"You can deal with the blood clot in these occasional tragic cases, but what they are not doing is preventing the chronic insidious brain damage that will blight so many boxers' lives."

As the sport reels from another tragedy, there have been calls for professional boxing to follow the amateur line and introduce headguards.

But Ingle's manager, Frank Maloney, says it would be a mistake.

"I'm all for anything that makes boxing safer and so is everybody else in boxing," said Maloney.

"But I believe headguards could be a hindrance because you don't always see the punches coming. You still get hit and it still rocks the head.

"People forget as well - and I'm not trying to make excuses or anything here - boxing is also an art of defence. It is to try and block the blows."

Superficial injuries

Olympic gold medallist Audley Harrison also argues against the use of headguards in the professional game.

"Statistics actually show that headguards, while stopping superficial injuries like cuts to the head, don't prevent you from getting knocked out," said the British super-heavyweight.

The headguard is really there to satisfy the public image, but in terms of safety it's actually quite questionable

  Audley Harrison

"You still get knocked out in amateur boxing like you do as a professional.

"So really the headguard is really there to satisfy the public image, but in terms of safety it's actually quite questionable."

Labour MP Paul Flynn has called for blows to the head to be banned, not just in boxing but other sports, and intends to present a bill to parliament in 2001.

Such a bill would draw huge opposition from many in the boxing fraterntiy, who believe that the sport's excitement and drama is built on the inherent risks that fighters take.

"The thing that is uniquely bad about boxing is that the whole purpose of the sport is to inflict brain injury on your opponent, to destroy brain cells," said Flynn.

Element of risk

"As an enthusiast of the sport for many years, I can't bear to watch it now.

"I don't think we will have boxing in 50 years' time. I think the sport will die of shame."

Spencer Oliver, who needed brain surgery himself after collapsing at the end of a fight in 1998, says there will always be risks.

Oliver receives treatment after collapsing

"Boxing is a lot safer than it was five years ago," said the former European bantamweight champion.

"But there is always going to be that element of risk. That's what excites people."

Colin McMillan, the secretary of the Professional Boxers Association, said that a boxing match without blows to the head would be like a Formula One race with a 50mph speed limit.

"It is a very tough sport and fighters are aware of the dangers involved," he said.

"It is sometimes hard to justify boxing, and when you see something like Saturday's case, you ask yourself is it really worth it?

"But it is a great character builder, it instils discipline, respect, inner motivation - there are so many positive sides which actually outweigh the negative sides."