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09/10/2008 Archived Entry: "Food for Thought for the Anti-Boxing Lobby?"
Food for thought for the anti-boxing lobby?
By Matt Donnellon
I was prompted to do the following exercise after reading the following:
Reuters Health, September, 2007 reported the following findings of a study of elite sportsmen(Hall-of-famers, etc), all born 1860-1930 by Dr. Massimiliano Bianco and colleagues from the Catholic University in Rome.
Most athletes lived an average of 76 years. The average lifespan ranged from 72.5 years for track and field athletes (in a non-aerobic sport v. an aerobic sport, such as running) to 79 years for tennis players. Although life expectancy was on the low side for boxers, at 73.0 years, it did not vary significantly among the different sports, the researchers found.There was no difference in boxers' life expectancy based on their weight or career records. The researchers also found no difference among life expectancies based on the amount of contact involved in an athlete's sport (none, intentional, or non-intentional).
The above list gives life-span data for 180 top Heavyweights, divided into top 20 by the decade that the fighter did their best work ( in my opinion). You don’t have to agree to the decade selection or indeed my picks as top 20, this table gives a good cross-section of the top fighters at heavyweight 1890-1959. Several points to note:
1) Some fighter’s data not known, so they are ignored.
2) Some fighters still alive, so obviously the average will increase if they survive into 2009.
3) Of the following fighters who died before their 50th year, the following died from other than natural causes; Cleary(amputation after accident) Killeen,(murdered) Goddard (shot) Barry(shot) Palzar(shot) Greb(operation) Stribling (accident) Brennan(shot) Marciano(accident) Liston(suicide?) Machen(accident?)
4) Schaaf, McCarty, Franklin and possibly Killen died from boxing related injuries.
5) I have counted from the year of birth and death(inclusive) ie Schmeling=100
Overall the results are surprising. Tom Sharkey, Schmeling, Jack Root, Moran, Fulton, Jack Sharkey, Carpentier, Tunney, Loughran, Uzcuden, Gains, Heeney, Pastor, Walker, Mann, Bettina, Bivins, Walcott, LaStarza, H.Johnson and Moore all saw at least their 80th year. Anybody with boxing knowledge knows the amount of tough fights and punishment that the above lot took. A recipe for long life? The expected lifespan for America for the period 1890-1959 are shown in the attached excel sheet but the average for the top heavyweights from 1890 to 1959 is 64, this despite the high accident rate. Not all the fighters are American of course but bear in mind the following; (1) most “foreign” fighters spent a considerable period of their careers in America (2) a large number of the American fighters were black and their life expectancy was much lower than average (3) America had a greater life expectancy than most other countries. Despite these adverse factors the top heavyweights easily out-perform the average
Below is the calculated life expectancy for males born in the USA 1900-40:
