You got me Parkinsoned, you bastard!

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As to the original question: absolutely no. Any boxer who enters the ring acknowledges the chance that he will be hit hard and clean enough as to slap his brain about the inside of his skull and render him unconscious and that he *will* suffer brain damage. And as T2 Bruno points out, surely, boxers sign a waiver indicating that they accept such risks.

What should be addressed is the fact that official weigh-ins for boxing matches are commonly held nearly 2 days before the fight. This leads almost all fighters, short of heavyweights, to dehydrate themselves so that they can officially compete at a lower weight class than they should really be fighting at. The problem is that sometimes a fighter who should really be fighting at, for example, light middleweight weighs in on fight night at the appropriate 154 pounds when his opponent will weigh in on fight night at more than super middle weight of 168 pounds even though he made the official weight requirment 2 days earlier of 154 pounds.

The fourteen pounds between 154 and 168 doesn't mean much in a street fight between two civilian, untrained street fighters. Between two highly trained, conditioned, and skilled boxers it could easily be dangerous for the lighter fighter.

 

Not only does a boxer accept the risk of brain damage - he accepts the risk of potentially being killed. A boxer dying in the ring - while rare - is certainly not unheard of.

That's completely true, but chances are, both fighters are doing it. It is commonplace in all sports that have weight limits for the contestants to not drink any fluids the day of the weigh-in (heck even high school wrestlers do this), and to often take a diuretic a day before the weigh-in to boot. I agree that 14 pounds is a huge difference when talking about a professional boxer - I'm just saying that both boxers probably enter the ring at significantly higher weights than what they weighed in the day before.

 

Yes, in almost every bout both fighters take advantage of the early weigh-in.

One exception would be when Mayweather fought De La Hoya. Mayweather came in underweight because he was not large enough to make the 154 lb. light middleweight limit and De la Hoya didn't dare come into the fight too heavy as it would have made him a tad slower and more vulnerable to Mayweather's super-hero like speed.

There are rare exceptions and those exceptions should not be accomodated by the official rules. I once saw two fighters, within the last 5 years*, weigh in at 154 pounds. The night of the bout their weights (unofficially, as they always are on the night of the fight) were 172 lbs. and 160 lbs.

My point is that weigh-ins should be held the day of the fight. Not only would it keep every boxer in their appropriate weight class but it would also keep every boxer safe from a brute who outweighs them considerably and it would also encourage all contestants not to participate in the very unhealthy practice of dehydration, starvation, and diuretic use before a bout.

I had not considered it before, Aldeth, but now that you mention it, I find it disturbing that high school kids would go to such lenghts to qualify to wrestle at lower weight limits....as a parent, could you imagine yourself allowing your teen to do such a thing?

*forgive my poor memory...I don't recall the year or the boxers. I do however remember the important part; the unofficial weigh-ins the night of the bout.

 

While I was not a wrestler in high school, I was friends with a few. While it was never talked about publicly, and diuretic use was definitely against the rules, there is no way to enforce a high schooler from choosing not to consume any food (especially fluids) the day of the wrestling meet. I watched my fried Mark do it all the time. He would not eat/drink anything all day. He would show up for his weigh in around 3:00 the day of the match, even though the event wouldn't start until around 7:00. As soon as he "made weight" he'd go out and each a huge meal and re-hydrate so that he'd be ready for the fight. So even if you had the weigh-in the day of the fight, it would be hard to completely avoid this.

As a parent, I do not think that I would allow my son to do such a thing. Then again, that is not something that I have to worry about any time soon - my son is only a little over a year old.

 

Thank you. That's the end of that argument.

Seriously though, boxers are well aware of the risks involved in the sport.