After the death of a Bradenton woman who fought in a Toughman boxing match, the American College of Sports Medicine on Wednesday urged lawmakers to demand better safety standards for the no-holds-barred events or ban them completely.
"The contest that left the Florida mother of two dead was the fourth death in the last 10 months, the 13th overall from Toughman contests, and it illustrates the need for immediate reform," Dr. Robert Cantu, a head and neck injury specialist and an ACSM official, said during a conference call Wednesday from the group's headquarters in Indianapolis.
Cantu was referring to Stacy Young, 30, who died after a Toughman fight June 14 at Robarts Arena. Young, who had never fought before, entered the contest at the urging of her husband.
As momentum builds to reform or prohibit Toughman-style contests, the Sarasota County Commission on Tuesday asked its attorneys to work with city of Sarasota attorneys on a proposed ordinance to ban Toughman contests anywhere in the county. The competitions, which pit amateur boxers of sometimes widely varying skills, have been held in the county for 18 years.
State Rep. Donna Clarke, R-Sarasota, has filed a bill that would require any amateur boxing in Florida to be sanctioned by an organization approved by the state boxing commission. But because of other priorities, Clarke's bill may not be heard any time soon.
Cantu and other ACSM members want states to make Toughman-style events adhere to the same safety guidelines that apply to USA Boxing, the sanctioning body for all amateur boxing in the United States. Those guidelines would include, among other things, extensive prefight examinations, up-to-date records of the medical and fight history of every boxer, experienced referees in the ring, evenly matched bouts and ringside physicians at all fights.
Toughman competitions rarely meet all those requirements.
"Boxing is not something to be entered into lightly, under any circumstances," Cantu said. "The risks go up massively when these events allow mismatched people to enter the ring with little or no preparation and without a complete system in place to try to avoid the very type of injuries and fatalities we are seeing.
"In some ways, it's like trying to legitimize and make a sport out of bar or street fighting."
It was Young's inability to defend herself, Cantu said, that may have to led to her death.
"Individuals need to be trained," he said. "If not, what we've observed, is that the athlete for the first minute or two can keep his hands up. But by the second round, their hands are often at their waist because they're too tired to hold them up.
"And then you put yourself in much greater harm's way."
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
