Assault in the ring documentary

[DavilaJones]

There was less padding in the gloves....?
My best friend had a pro record of 8-1-1, with 1 KO. The fight where he scored his one ko, they were taking pictures before the fight, during the afternoon. The gloves had no padding in them at all, and those were the fight gloves and everybody knew it.
When my friend learned that the 'bag gloves for the pictures' were the fight gloves, he almost cried. Being a fighter, he went on with the fight. But he left his boxer style in the locker room, figuring that he'd get busted up fighting with those gloves. He went out and scored a first round ko, the only ko of his career.
My point is that, for many years and in many places, guys fought with fucked up gloves and just dealt with it. No commissions and fighting in the other guy's hometown to make extra money, that is, historically, boxing.
If Billy Collins, may he rest in peace, was getting pot-shotted by a journeyman, in his first step up, he had probably gone as far as he was going anyway.

For further perspective, guys like Gunboat Smith and Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson fought with 4 oz gloves. Corbett and Sullivan and Fitzsimmons fought with leather driving gloves with ZERO padding. In the old days, guys sparred with less padding in the gloves than Collins fought with.

Good point(s).

I bet those old guys would never pass a modern medical.

Its a strange thing trying to make this sport safer. It's almost oxymoronic since so many fans these days prefer a brawl over a technical match.

Regarding the gloves I think you have to do a many decade long study to see if at the end of the day less trauma is received by a boxer if there's more padding on the gloves or less. The argument would be that if its less padding, he takes less overall punches before he's KO'd but then the likelihood of them going blind or seriously injured right away would increase. Tough call and I have no idea which would be the safer choice for the fighter, asides the obvious choice of elevating your defense.