As we all know by now Nick Blackwell suffered a brain bleed and collapsed in the ring after the fight and at the time of writing this post is still in a medically induced coma. I have heard a lot of people in the press and on social media asking why the referee didn’t stopped the fight sooner. Ok yes a big part of any referees job is to protect both fighters, and up until the time of the stoppage Nick was still punching back and pushing Chris Eubank. It was only when the referee could see how bad Nick’s eye was that he called the doctor in and stopped the fight. So in my opinion the referee did nothing wrong because up until the point when he collapsed he was showing no outward signs of having a problem. I have also heard people saying why didn’t his corner pull him out what you have to remember is his trainer and manager Gary Lockett is one of the best in the country and probably the man who knows Nick best and he can see into his eyes at the end of every round I’m sure if he thought Nick had a problem he would have pulled him out.
People also seen to be making a big deal over what Chris Eubank snr said to his son at the end of the 8th round when he told him not to go to the head but go to the body people are saying that, that’s what saved Nick’s life. However is that why he really said it or this it because he realised that Chris wasn’t going to be able to get Nick out of there with head shots, so he told him to switch to the body in order to get the stoppage because he didn’t want the fight in the hands of the judges. I know what I think but you can make your own minds up.
Now that I have dealt with the main talking points from the fight it’s time to look at the medical procedures that are in place to protect fighters and what’s in place to help them when things go wrong. Contrary to popular belief it is very rare these days for something to go wrong on the scale of Saturday night. There are number of safeguards in place to prevent tragic events that we saw on Saturday night. Unfortunately these safeguards are now in place because of other tragic events. In the 80s and 90s boxing was a lot more dangerous than it is today with boxers regularly suffering serious injuries and even dying in the ring.
This all came to a head when Michael Watson suffered a similar injury to that of Nick Blackwell in his rematch ironically against Chris Eubank snr in 1991. On that night there was no ambulance at the arena and it took 8 minutes before Watson received any medical treatment, and when he did get to hospital it was the wrong one, after this event and Watson’s subsequent court case against the board of control which he won. This force the board to do a review of their medical procedures at ringside they made it mandatory to have an ambulance, paramedics and a doctor at ringside for all fights.
Medical procedures where improved again after what happened to Spencer Oliver in his fight against Serhiy Divakov in 1998. He suffered a blood clot and it is believed by many that it was thanks to the improvements made after the Watson fight that saved Spencer’s life. However after this it was made compulsory to have an anaesthetist at ringside so that he can induce comas at ringside giving the fighter a better chance of making a full recovery.
It was these two fights along with others that have given rise to the procedures we have today. So what does a fighter have to go through before he can get in the ring all fighters have a full medical once a year when they renew their licenses. On the day of the weigh in both fighters will have a full medical. On fight night two hospitals are notified one general and the other neurological. At ringside there will be at least two doctors’ paramedics and an anaesthetist. Immediately after the fight both boxers will have a medical.
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