Amateur Boxing Injuries at the 1981 and 1982 USA/ABF National Championships

Abstract

In brief: This paper presents the injury statistics for the 1981 and 1982 USA/Amateur Boxing Federation National Championships. These tournaments consisted of 547 bouts with 1,094 participants. Eighty-five injuries of varying degrees of severity were recorded; 52 were considered notable. The most frequent injuries were head blows, soft-tissue hand injuries, and facial lacerations. Forty-eight matches were stopped because of head blows, which occurred at a rate of 4.38%. All other injuries occurred at a rate of 4.75%. Amateur boxing injuries could be reduced if the sport were included in the scholastic milieu and if headgear, mats, and gloves were better designed.