AIBA Aims for Safety at Boxing World Champs-On the Scene

(ATR) AIBA president C.K. Wu says its new"Heads Up!"program has cut down the number of concussions and cuts on the heads of boxers.

Wu announced the new initiativeat a press conference preceding the semi-final matches of the AIBA boxing world championships Sunday in Doha, Qatar.

Wu says up to this point in the tournament there have been zero concussions.

"Heads Up can really help keep the health and safety of our boxers", Wu told reporters.

AIBA has developed a two-step solution aimed at reducing head injuries.

In 2013 AIBA banned the use of the head guard in their competitions following the collection of medical data from 11,000 matches as well as feedback from boxers.

Using the data, AIBA discovered the vast majority of concussions and cuts to the head were caused by boxers head-butting one another. The federation found the head guard provided boxers with a false sense of safety.

"When the boxer used to wear the head guard they felt the head is protected by the head guard so they would always use their head to hit the opponent," Wu explains.

According to Wu, boxers welcomed the change, in part due to the hygienic benefits of not wearing a head guard while sweating in competition.

The second step of the solution was teaching boxers, coaches, trainers and referees to recognize when a boxer would lead with the head to throw a punch so they could begin to correct the behavior to avoid serious injury.

"We need an educational process to educate the coach teaching the boxers. They need to change their tactics in boxing competition," says Wu.

Wu says the way to correct this behavior is simply by keeping the boxer’s head up, giving the initiative its name.

"To prevent these cuts, their head must stay up. They must keep their position and head up so they can avoid using the head to cause cuts. That is very simple."

Before these world championships began, AIBA hosted a workshop for coaches and referees so they could get familiar with the new rules put in place by the Heads Up initiative.

"The rules give the referee power inside the ring to warn and even disqualify the boxer if the boxer is using a head-butt to achieve victory," Wu says.

The effect of this new program can already be seen at these world championships. At the beginning of each bout the referee can be seen using hand motions signaling to the boxers to keep their heads up at all times. If a boxer is seen leading with the head, the referee will break the boxers apart, remind them of the rule and resume play.

"We want this to become a very important part of the competition. Heads Up will not only be at major championships. We already created a charter that went out to all of the national federations to sign to train the referees, boxers and coaches in the new rules," says Wu.

Although Heads Up will be a part of all AIBA competitions moving forward, it is still unclear whether the program will be adopted for boxing at the Olympic Games.

Wu says the federation is working with the IOC medical commission, the AIBA medical commission as well as an independent expert to analyze the data from these championships to see if abandoning the head guard is the right move before the Games in Rio de Janeiro next August. Wu believes it is.

"This should be the future of boxing."

Reported and written in Doha, Qatar by KevinNutley.

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