Boxing Injuries

From its crude and often lethal early pugilism roots, the sport of boxing has come a long way. Boxing legends like Joe Lewis, Muhammad Ali, and Rocky Marciano brought worldwide recognition and fame to the sport of boxing. Today, boxing is a sport practiced around the world at junior, collegian, amateur, Olympian, and professional levels. It’s has also become popular as a recreational and exercise activity. That said, boxing is still often perceived as one of the most violent and dangerous sports in the world.

How Do Boxing Injuries Occur?

Of course, any sport that involves multiple hard-hitting punching to the body and with a goal of knocking an opponent unconscious comes with a high risk of traumatic injuries. The long hours of physical conditioning and sparring also place boxers at high risk for overuse injuries. It should also be noted that amateur boxers wear protective gear and most bouts are only three rounds. On the other hand, professional boxers do not wear headgear and will typically have ten to twelve round bouts.

Comparatively, injury statistics are actually much lower than other contact sports. For example, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimated that there were 7,257 boxing injuries reported in 1997, this versus the 148,913 soccer injuries and 334,420 football injuries from the same year. None the less, by nature, boxing will always carry the risk of injury.

What Are Some Common Boxing Injuries?

Contusions

A contusion is another name for a bruise. It is caused by blunt force trauma, such as being hit by an opponent during a boxing match, and is common in both amateur and professional boxing settings. Depending on how hard the blow is, the impact may reach the subcutaneous tissue, muscles, bones, and even internal organs. Most studies show that muscle contusions are the most common type of contusion, accounting for around 1/3 of all sports-related injuries.

As the area is struck, the impact compresses the muscle into underlying bone, crushes muscles fibers, and damages capillaries. The damaged capillaries leak blood into the interstitial tissues, which is what causes the black-and-blue appearance and swelling associated with a bruise. Pain is felt as nerve endings detect the extra blood accumulating.

Boxer’s Knuckle

Boxer’s knuckle, also called a sagittal band tear, is an injury caused by the repetitive blows absorbed and delivered by the clinched hand of a boxer. The knuckles (joints) of the middle and little finger are the most commonly affected. Boxer's knuckle is an injury to the extensor mechanism of the fingers. The extensor tendon runs across the metacarpophalangeal joint (MCP joint). Sagittal bands hold the tendon in place over the joint. Just under the tendon is the MCP joint capsule. The tendon, sagittal band, joint capsule, or any combination of the three may become worn and tear. The symptoms of boxer's knuckle include the following:

* pain, swelling, and tenderness of the affected knuckle
* possible popping sensation as the affected finger’s knuckle is bent
* obvious bulging that's palpable over the affected knuckle
* possible inability to bend or straighten the affected knuckle

Strains And Sprains

Both strains and sprains of soft tissues are common to the sport of boxing. These mainly occur in the lower and upper extremities, such as the biceps, elbows, wrist, ankle hands, and knees. However, they may also occur in the back.

A strain is an injury to a muscle or tendon. On the other hand, a sprain is an injury to a ligament. In either case, the affected soft tissue is abnormally stretched or torn from either a direct blow, especially if the muscle is tissue is contracted at the time of impact, or from repetitive overuse that causes the tissues to weaken and degenerate over time. Both strains and sprains are graded based on the degree of injury:

Grade I - mild stretching or microscopic tearing of fibers that doesn’t interfere with structural function.

Grade II - moderate partial tearing of the fibers that can cause moderate localized swelling, pain, and loss of function.

Grade III - more than 90% fiber tearing that causes significant localized swelling, pain, and loss of function.

Do keep in mind that these are just a few of the injuries common to boxing. Boxers are also at risk for rotator cuff injuries, lacerations, head and eye injuries, fractures, concussions, tendinitis, bursitis and Achilles tendon injuries.