Brain injuries are 'a natural consequence' of 'dangerous' boxing: George Chuvalo's son
Montreal boxer Adonis Stevenson in an induced coma after fight
Even though legendary Canadian boxer George Chuvalo is "now in cognitive decline," he still perks up at the mention of his fights against Muhammad Ali, according to Chuvalo's son Mitchell.
"He has trouble now contextualizing things, knowing what day it is, knowing where he is, but that Ali reference always brings him back to some degree of being lucid," Mitchell Chuvalo told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
Mitchell grew up ringside, watching his father's rise to prominence over a career of 97 professional fights, from 1956 to 1978.
While his father, 81, was never diagnosed with a concussion, Mitchell is sure his career in the ring contributed to his current condition.
"You think of the thousands of concussive hits my father suffered over a career … I know that that contributed to his cognitive decline," he said.
On Saturday, a boxing match in Quebec City left fighter Adonis Stevenson hospitalized in an induced coma. Stevenson, a 41-year-old Montreal-based fighter known to his fans as Superman, remained in intensive care in a Quebec City hospital, after a knockout by Oleksandr Gvozdyk of Ukraine.
In an update Wednesday, the hospital said Stevenson "requires mechanical respiratory assistance, deep sedation and specialized neurological monitoring."
"It is too early to comment on Mr. Stevenson's long-term prognosis," said Dr. Alexis Turgeon, an intensive-care specialist at the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus.
The incident has raised questions among medical professionals over whether they can support the sport, or even whether it should be banned.
Mitchell said he's "torn" on his own father's experience.
"I know that my father suffered brain damage due to boxing but I also know that his life in boxing established who he was as an individual, and he is still to this moment ... quite, quite proud of that."
However, he doesn't believe Stevenson's case should be discussed as an accident.
"I don't think it was an accident. I think it's a natural consequence of being involved in a very dangerous sport," he said.
"And I don't know what we can do about it."
Your brain 'will not be the better' for boxing
Dr. Richard Wennberg, a neurologist with the University Health Network in Toronto, calls boxing "prototype of an unsafe sport for brain function."
A knockout is "by definition an acute brain damage," he said, adding that the most typical injury that can result from a knockout is a concussion.
In more severe cases, boxers can suffer an intracranial hemorrhage, where there is bleeding inside the brain or the lining surrounding it.
"Sometimes an artery gets severed from a skull fracture and the blood can build up," he added.
He pointed out that while what happened to Stevenson is rare, "there is no doubt but that if one chooses to go into boxing as a sport, and actually fights, your brain will not be the better for it."
For a lot of people it was the way out of the street ... and to find a role for themselves in life and a way to sustain themselves.- Dr. Jean Doré
Boxers undergo medical checks before a fight, including CAT scans and MRIs, but Dr. Jean Doré argued that those tests are "absolutely useless" when it comes to managing concussions.
"We should be doing other investigations, like a neuropsychological evaluation, which [give] much more information regarding the status of a brain," said Doré, a professor of kinesiology in the faculty of medicine at the University of Laval.
Doré was a back-up physician at the fight in Montreal on Saturday, and did not directly care for Stevenson.
Should boxing be banned?
Doré pointed out that boxing offers health benefits as a form of exercise, and serious injuries at the amateur level are not as common as in professional boxing.
For generations, the sport has helped people fight their way out of poverty, he said.
"For a lot of people it was the way out of the street and to get their things together, and to find a role for themselves in life and a way to sustain themselves," he said.
Mitchell Chuvalo pointed out that banning the sport would just drive it underground.
But while he was always involved with the sport in a spectator's role, Mitchell is thankful he was never pushed to follow in his father's footsteps.
He remembers training in the boxing gym when he was younger, when an onlooker called out to his father and said: "Hey George ... he looks good, he's going to be a fighter?"
"And my father turned and said: 'No, this kid's going to go to school,' Mitchell remembered.
"He had to fight, perhaps. I didn't have to, and he acknowledged that.
"That was his great gift to me."
Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Howard Goldenthal and Cameron Perrier.