June 27, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN
This is a subsequent note inspired by a medical seminar held by the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday.
A trainer asked a question on the effect of a punch according to the weight of gloves. Dr. Joji Otsuki, JBC’s brain surgeon of Jikei Medical University Hospital, replied, “The most serious damage can be produced by rotational acceleration onto the brain rather than by impact of a punch. Therefore, even if we use bigger (that is, heavier) gloves, it may not be necessarily said that will soften the effect of a punch, or the damage that a boxer suffers. There may be a possibility that the bigger gloves may cause higher rotational acceleration that more hurts a boxer.”
The discussion on this matter didn’t go further at the seminar. However, this reporter, formerly a mechanical engineer good at physics and dynamics, wondered to himself afterward whether Dr. Otsuki’s suggestion was right or not.
It is a common sense that the bigger (exactly heavier) the gloves are, the less damage suffers a boxer. When I was a young trainer in the teens, I was taught by senior coaches to use bigger gloves to a heavier boxer and smaller ones to a lighter fighter in sparring sessions. We then didn’t doubt this common sense. In Japan, there’s a technical term of “glove handicap.” It means that a heavier boxer should owe a handicap by wearing heavier gloves when fighting a lighter opponent to make the game fair and square. Provided that a lightweight (135-pound) boxer should meet a featherweight (126-pound) fighter ? which was common in good old days ? the former uses 8-ounce gloves, while the latter 6-ounce ones. It was actually put into practice by a contract between both parties at that time, though the JBC currently forbids any bout with considerably big weight difference.
It seems the common sense on the size/weight of gloves is widespread in the world. So, there have been some proposals to have bigger gloves used in fights than now in order to make boxing safer. Also, internationally, the 6-ounce gloves are forbidden to be used in world title bouts even under the super-flyweight (115-pound) category. The amendment was firmly based on the common sense that the heavier the gloves are, the safer boxing becomes.
We had better rethink over the said common sense. Yours truly classifies damage caused by a punch into a couple of categories:
A knockdown, generally speaking, is caused by concussion of the brain. If a boxer wishes to score a knockdown, which way is more effective? The answer is: (a) Hit hard, (b) Hit the pinpoint (the weakest part of the opponent) accurately, or (c) Hit in combination. Apart from damage/knockdown by body punches, we hereby concentrate on the effect of head punches.
In short, a boxer’s reaction after absorbing a punch is different, depending on whether the blow is a straight punch, a left hook, or an uppercut.
Muhammad Ali’s most impressive victory might be remembered in his third-round demolition of Cleveland Williams in 1966. Ali, on the night, displayed marvelous power-punching by using solid and accurate straight rights thanks to his good judgment of distance. Wladimir Klitchko also showed brilliant effect of straight punches in battering Ray Mercer into submission in the sixth round in 2002. Neither Ali nor Klitchko was/is a left hooker. Each seldom used/uses a left hook as main weapon by exclusively throwing straight punches (jabs and/or right crosses) to utilize the superior height/reach/speed and keep the distance.
Remember the reactions of Williams and Mercer going down, and we realize the damage was produced by the direct impact to the brain caused by the straight punches. Should Ali or Klitchko have used heavier gloves (with more thickness of knuckle part), was the effect by their straight punches softened or decreased?
This reporter doesn’t think so in terms of physics and dynamics. Regardless of the weight of gloves, the impact of the punches that floored Williams or Mercer might have been similar, if not say exactly the same. It might not be scientifically true that the smaller the gloves are, the harder they fall. If so, the boxing rules must go to regulate the thickness of knuckle part rather than the weight of gloves. No, the damage is decided by power of a punch behind which a boxer put the weight rather than the thickness of gloves.
One example will be enough. It was such a historic fight as great many boxing fans have repeatedly watched and remembered well. Sugar Ray Robinson, back in 1957, exploded a single countering left hook to Gene Fullmer and pulverized him with such rubbery legs en route to a fifth-round knockout to regain the world middleweight belt. The dramatic KO was caused by rotational acceleration onto the brain.
Medically speaking, the brain is like a mass (or lump) of jelly floating in brain liquid inside the skull. If the rotational acceleration is acted to the brain with an effect by the devastating left hook, the brain collides with the inner side of the skull. It temporarily produces such concussion of the brain that a boxer cannot stand on only to lose the balance and go down. Fullmer tasted such an uncontrollable physical state by Sugar Ray’s left hook.
We sometimes watch a left hook just graze (or touch) the button of the chin that amazingly produces a bad knockdown. It was due to the rotational acceleration that concusses the brain suddenly, swiftly and sharply.
Back to the matter of the size/weight of gloves, Dr. Otsuki mentioned that bigger gloves may give more possibility of touching the extreme point of the chin with lateral force (by a left hook) to produce the rotational acceleration onto the brain. It may happen when a boxer attempts to avert a left hook by swaying back, but the punch with bigger gloves reaches and touches the button, and the head abruptly rotates by leverage of the punch. Down he goes. As for the rotational acceleration, the bigger gloves, in a sense, may be more dangerous in terms of grazing the button to produce more damage as well as producing higher centrifugal force.
There have been so many examples of knockouts by uppercuts all over the world. An uppercut is as effective as a straight right (right cross) and/or a left hook. The logic is same as described in case of a KO by a left hook. If a boxer lifts an uppercut to the chin, the head suddenly moves up with the brain colliding with the inner wall of the skull. He falls backward with the occiput (the back of the head) occasionally hitting the canvas.
Bigger gloves may have more possibility of an uppercut reaching the button to abruptly raise a boxer’s head with full force. In school we were taught “the principles of the lever” in physics that small force can produce bigger force by leverage. A slight touch (or graze) to the button with upward force may do more damage to the brain by leverage. Also, when a boxer uses bigger gloves, it becomes more difficult for his opponent to avert or slip punches. Therefore, considering the effect of an uppercut, we may not be able to simply say that bigger gloves are safer.
Then, if bigger gloves are not necessarily safer in terms of the effect of the three kinds of punches, why has the common sense been prevailing for such a long time?
This reporter is now reading Oscar De La Hoya’s latest autobiography “American Son.” There is a good picture when Oscar in his childhood was sparring at a gym. Oscar and his partner used as big gloves as their heads. The reason why baby- boxers use very big gloves is simple. It is because a boy’s arm power is so limited that he cannot swing or throw punches quickly rather than because bigger gloves soften the impact or damage. This is the point.
From the viewpoint of dynamics, in the early stage of a fight, the slight weight difference of the gloves (between 6-ounce and 8-ounce gloves) doesn’t physically make any obvious difference on the impact or damage, even if the thickness of knuckle part is partly proportional to the weight of gloves. However, as the fight progresses, a boxer using heavier gloves feels arm-weary. Accordingly, his punches become slower than in earlier rounds.
Power is force multiplied by velocity (speed). The slower his punch becomes, his punching power decreases. With his hand-speed gradually slowing down, his punches tend to become less powerful and less damaging. It is the point that bigger gloves may soften the damage of a boxer who absorbs punches.
In closing, strictly speaking, “heavier/lighter” gloves are different from “bigger/smaller” gloves. The current rules and regulations only stipulate the weight of the gloves, not the size. Therefore, it may be recommendable that the size and fundamental shape of the same weight gloves (as well as the thickness of knuckle part) should be standardized in the future, regardless of brands: Lonsdale, Everlast, Grant, Reyes, Adidas, Winning, etc. It is because the size of gloves physically affects the impact/damage along with the weight thereof.
(6-27-08)