By A ban had been in place since a PFC died last year.
The U.S. Army in South Korea will lift its ban on boxing matches, but participants will have to follow several new safety rules, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.
The ban was imposed last fall after Army Pfc. Jason Price collapsed during a boxing match and later died.
The new rules will apply to all “high-risk contact” sporting competitions, including wrestling, mixed martial arts and tae kwon do.
The rules govern only soldiers and civilians assigned within 8th Army in South Korea and do not apply to regular unit martial arts training, said Maj. Jerome L. Pionk, an 8th Army spokesman in Seoul.- Stars and Stripes
Physicals will be mandatory under the new rules for anyone who wants to take part in these sports. I have mixed feelings about servicemembers being allowed to take part in boxing. The sport, no matter how many precautions are taken, can cause permanent health problems that are sometimes not detected for years. My father used to own standardbred race horses and one of the driver/trainers who my father used was named Billy Pocza*. Pocza had once been a heavyweight fighter and sparring partner for Champion Jersey Joe Walcott.
While still short of 50 years of age, Billy Pocza’s mental condition started to deterioate. He eventually died sometime in the mid-80′s and I know he was somewhere around 55 years of age at the time. The slow degeneration of Pocza’s mental abilities was sad for his family. His son Jay(who was the same age as I give or take a year) and I were friends back when our fathers had a business relationship and I was over to the Pocza’s Florida home a couple of times.
While I don’t advocate a ban on boxing, I rather not see an Army family have to go through what Jay Pocza did with his father. There are other sports that carry few if any risks.
*- That is a 1972 photo taken at Brandywine racetrack of a horse named Charlie Zam after he won a race. From Left to right- My grandfather, me, my father, Charlie Zam, Billy Pocza, Jay Pocza, Jody Pocza, unidentified woman.
I remember this race and time well. Charlie won by five lengths, a day or two some storm hit the mid-Atlantic seaboard causing me, Grandpa, and Dad to stay holed up in a Delaware hotel for an entire day, and the binoculars around my neck had been given to me by Grandpa just before we left on this trip.
8:37 am on October 28th, 2009 1
It is now understood that a career of full contact football can have comparable effects. Where do you draw the line?
10:22 am on October 28th, 2009 2
Hundreds of school children are permananently injured or die every year from violent contact sport participation yet all we ever hear about is how bad playing violent video games is for your kids.
The boxing ban was just another example of the commercial and political hypocrisy that runs rampant in the United States. Why the ban in the first place? Why lift it now? Have they all of a sudden found a way to make the act of 2 people beating the crap out of each other safer?
It's funny how my son can't play Dodge Ball in school but it's okay for him to receive a paralyzing neck injury playing Football. Hmmm.. could it be that it's because you can't get a Dodge Ball scholarship or be drafted into a multi-million dollar Professional Dodge Ball contract?
If people dying or being injured for life was actually a significant issue then they would ban these sports permanently. But all we hear in the media is calls for a ban on virtual violence perpetrated against virtual people in an artificial world.
10:13 pm on October 28th, 2009 3
They banned dodge ball in school? That is pretty dumb.
11:27 pm on October 28th, 2009 4
GI,
Yes some schools ban it or other children's games like tag.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-06-26-re…
12:27 am on October 29th, 2009 5
Lots of people get senile w/o out ever putting on the gloves
Of note, Billy Pocza does not appear in the a datebase of every pro fighter who had a pro bout http://www.boxrec.com so if his name was spelled correctly it does not appear he ever even stepped in the ring as a pro so I wonder how much damage he took or how he was a sparring partner for a HVT champ?
1:55 am on October 29th, 2009 6
Millions of people die in wars, yet all we ever hear is how playing football, or boxing causes 2 or 3 people to die every year.
psst…lemme tell you a secret, people enjoy watching other people get smashed up and sustain injury. They will even pay to watch.
2:07 am on October 29th, 2009 7
You got no argument there. Why else do some people find the 'Final Destination' movies entertaining?
8:32 am on October 29th, 2009 8
Those of us who grew up watching Mohammed Ali believed he had excellent defensive skills and almost never really got hit. He seemed to roll with the punches that tagged him. It was only in his vicious battles with Joe Fraser and his last fights past his prime that you saw him getting punished.
But Joe Fraser took many more hard direct shots and to a lesser extent so did George Foreman, But they are both still relatively coherent. So, maybe there is an opportunity to study exactly why some more than others. Review the tapes.
Maybe there are genetics predisposition factors. Maybe there are physiological factors that can help compensate; like enhanced neck muscle building exercises that would mute the head rocking.