On this week’s edition of SecondsOut Radio, host Eddie Goldman begins by commenting on yet another woeful heavyweight title fight, this past Saturday’s 11th-round knockout by IBF-WBO champ Wladimir Klitschko over Tony Thompson in Hamburg, Germany, and the state of the heavyweight division.
The subject of the actions and inactions of ringside physicians once again came to the fore during the June 28 Humberto Soto-Francisco Lorenzo 130-pound title fight, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Lorenzo had been knocked down in the fourth round and then took a knee after a barrage of punches by Soto, he was struck in the back of the head, while still down, by Soto. The fight was over, but the ringside officials took several minutes to discuss the impact of that foul by Soto, and to decide whether to award a TKO victory to Soto or to disqualify him for the foul. While all this was going on, Lorenzo was lying on the canvas, bleeding and hurt, by legal and/or illegal blows.
Dr. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and former chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, is a long-time fighter for the health and safety of boxers. Now, she is speaking out in criticism of the failures of the ringside physicians in the Soto- Lorenzo fight, as well as in the July 5 Kendall Holt-Ricardo Torres fight, also held in Las Vegas. In the latter fight, Holt was knocked down twice in the early seconds of the first round, but rallied to knock Torres out cold, all in just 61 seconds.
Dr. Goodman has also written an article entitled "A Barely Noticed Death" for an upcoming edition of "The Ring". This piece focuses on the death on March 19 of this year of journeyman boxer Rafael Ortiz, who had last fought March 8 in the state of Washington, and the disgracefully inadequate prefight and postfight medical examinations he received.
This week we spoke at length with Dr. Margaret Goodman about these medical failures, and what we can do to fight for fighter safety.
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