Boxing is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Some individuals stay away from it, as they see how many injuries it can bring. For example, 20% of professional boxers will suffer from CTBI, or chronic traumatic brain injury, which will have symptoms, such as speech impairment and memory loss.
Boxing affects IQ, only if you suffer from a head injury. A study was able to prove the link between the amount of head injuries you had in your career, to the IQ you lost. Such a finding is extremely relevant to us, the people who box or want to start boxing. Females seem to lose almost double the IQ for each injury.
You can’t really keep yourself safe from head injuries in boxing. Although you might think you are, especially when wearing headgear; however, various studies have proved the dis-effectiveness of such equipment.
Eventually, your IQ should matter to you. That’s why you should stay away from constant sparring or fighting, unless your goal is to become a professional boxer. I’m aware of the effectiveness of sparring in learning to fight and honing your technique. Is it worth it, however, if you’re losing intelligence in the process?
Of course, I’m not telling you to stay away from sparring or competing. All I’m trying to accomplish here is to inform you of the dangers boxing brings. Frankly, I’m not going to stop boxing, even when I’m aware of the risks. Its benefits are many, and I’m unwilling of giving up on them.
Before we dive into the article itself, if you want to learn whether boxing headgear prevents concussions and whether it protects you, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Can boxing affect your intelligence?
This section will examine the medical studies that proved that boxing alters your intelligence. While I don’t want to scare you off this wonderful sport, it’s vital that you understand why such loss of IQ occurs. If you do, you’ll understand how dangerous it can be and how much you should watch yourself in training.
Boxing can affect intelligence, if you suffer from head injury because of it. A study examined the loss of IQ in boxers and found that there’s a significant reduction in IQ over time. For each head injury, there’s an equivalent of losing the same IQ you gain in a year of school. Such a finding can be alarming for some.
According to the study: “even a single fighting-related injury resulted in a significant reduction in IQ over time even after controlling for age, race, sex, and changes in socioeconomic status (SES) over the study period. Additionally, females experienced a significantly greater reduction in IQ from each fighting-related injury than males.” (Source)
While males suffer from a loss of 1.62 points of IQ for each injury, females had a deduction of 3.02. Such number of points are the same as losing a year of school; so, if you suffer from 5 head injuries from boxing, females will lose 15.1 IQ points.
This graph displays the loss you can expect to have for the number of injuries you suffer from. As you can see, females will suffer a greater deal of IQ points.
Concluding, if you care about your intelligence, you might want to stay away from turning pro in boxing. While head injuries aren’t as common, they’re also not as uncommon. But, if you take boxing as a hobby, you’ll be fine as long as you keep your head safe in the long-term.
Will boxing alter my IQ?
As we’ve seen in the last section, head injuries suffered from boxing—will impact your intelligence. Such a finding—is critical to understand, especially if you’re not trying to make it a career. Of course, if your desire is to become a professional, you shouldn’t care about injuries, as you already know the risks.
Boxing will alter your IQ, assuming you suffer from head injuries caused by constant sparring, fighting, or competing. The more hits you get to the head, one study examines, the more likely you are to have brain damage. Such damage will eventually lead to a deduction in IQ points, approximately 1.62 for males.
The same study found a link between how many times you lose to your likelihood of receiving brain damage. So, to put it simply, if you want to avoid a deduction in IQ points, you must win more matches.
I know that it may sound weird, but it’s the truth. The more you win, the less likely you’ll be to suffer from severe brain damage. This damage can be correlated to head injuries, which directly link to a reduction in IQ.
I highly encourage you to understand the risks of boxing. Even if your entire goal is to become a professional boxer, you must be aware of this risk. Your intelligence can be everything to you, as it indicates what you can and cannot learn and do in life. If you want to keep it complete, stay away from regular sparring or fighting in general.
How to protect my IQ from decreasing in boxing
If you want to ensure the protection of your intelligence in boxing, there are a few ways you can use to approach the situation. This section will examine what you can do to ensure you don’t suffer from any deduction of your IQ.
To protect your IQ from decreasing from boxing, you must do everything to avoid head injuries. To do so, it’ll be best if you stay away from regular sparring or fighting (such as competing). Although sparring has numerous benefits, such as getting actual practice in fighting, it risks your IQ.
Here are some ways you can implement—to protect your IQ from decreasing in boxing:
- Avoid as many punches to the head
- Start blocking more punches
- Work on your defensive game
- Win more fights
- Stay away from regular sparring or fighting
- Treat every head injury with caution
- Visit a doctor whenever feeling head pain
As you can see, there are numerous things you can work on right now to ensure the short and long-term health of your head. If you want to be sure you’re not going to lose any IQ points, these are ways you should definitely consider adopting and implementing in your boxing career.
Wearing headgear won’t necessarily prevent concussions or head injuries. Although it absorbs some of the punch’s impact, it doesn’t prevent it. And, it also makes you a bigger, easier-to-hit target. As a result, you’ll get hit by punches that you would normally dodge.
If you want to know whether boxing makes you dumber, follow the link to an article of mine revealing the answer.
Does boxing require intelligence?
The idea that you must have a minimum amount of IQ points to start boxing—doesn’t make sense. However, we can assume how violent and aggressive you’ll be—to your Intelligence quotient. (IQ)
Boxing doesn’t require intelligence to start training in, since you’ll learn and accustom your mind to the different rules and techniques fast. Likewise, boxing is a simple martial art that won’t require as much to learn, especially its basics. It’s completely different from learning chess, for instance, a more complicated sport.
A study found that: “Lower IQ was associated with violence perpetration in the UK general population. Further studies are warranted to assess how low IQ can lead to violence perpetration, and whether interventions are possible for this high-risk group.”
Some people have claimed that this study relates to the topic of our discussion. However, I believe it doesn’t; let me explain why. Boxing doesn’t correlate to violence. Contrary to that, street fighting do.
People don’t start learning to box for violent or aggressive reasons; most of them want to learn self-defense or to improve themselves. As a result, this study has no real basis that people with lower IQ will start boxing. On the other hand, people with lower IQ will be more prone to getting into street fights and fights with no purpose.
So, while there’s a correlation between your intelligence quotient to how violent you’ll be in the first place, you don’t have to have a set amount to begin with to learn boxing.
Final words
Boxing is one of the best martial arts you can learn. It’ll help you improve your physical and mental selves while ensuring you learn to fight appropriately.
However, it does have some risk for decreasing your IQ or intelligence. If you get hit multiple times in the head throughout your career, you’re more likely to suffer brain injury than the boxer who doesn’t spar at all.
Of course, putting your skills into play—can be extremely enjoyable and help you progress faster. However, the primary risk lies there; so if you want to avoid as many injuries as possible, don’t spar as often and ensure to protect your head at all costs.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about whether boxing will make you more violent. Spoiler alert, the answer is no; but, if you want to learn why, follow the link.