GVs Boxers sparring at Gleason's gymnasium, New York

SVs & GV Coach attends to boxer's face; boxers with punchbag and punchball; sparring. (4 SHOTS)

CU Trainer speaking (SOT)

SCU White boxer speaking to reporter. (SOT)

SCU Black boxer speaking to reporter. (SOT)

SCU Dr. Ira Kassen speaking. (SOT)

GV Doctor points out still pictures of brain scans.

SCU Dr. Kassen speaking. (SOT)

TRANSCRIPT: TRAINER: (SEQ 3) "You gotta remember that these people like to fight. So it's better for them to fight with other people who enjoy that than to pick on people in the streets."

REPORTER: (SEQ 4)"Why do you risk brain damage by boxing?"

WHYTE BOXER "Well, I feel if I do things right I won't get no brain damage and if I go things, y'know as long as they're I think within a couple of years I'll be able to retire."

BLACK BOXER: (SEQ 5)" My trainer always taught me learn to fist, block punches, slip punches, get hit less as possible."

REPORTER: "But they do hit you, and they do get through?"

BOXER: "Y'see, that's the point, I get less as possible."

KASSEN: (SEQ 6) "We found that 87 per cent of the professional boxers who were examined had clear-cut evidence of chronic brain injury."

KASSEN: (SEQ 8)"These also were good fighters and some of them were champions; so being champions or being good fighters did not protect them from this chronic effect of long-term brain injury."

CC/APN/JRS

Background: The American Medical Association (AMA) plans to follow its British counterpart in lobbying for legislation against professional and amateur boxing. They claimed at a meeting in Honolulu on December 6 that boxing was a "dangerous spot that ought to be outlawed". The AMA delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling boxing "a sport in which the primary objective is to inflict injury", and they pledged to work to educate the American people about the dangers of boxing. Dissenters at the meeting claimed that ice hockey and American football produced more head injuries than boxing. At a New York gymnasium, followers of the sport were skeptical about the AMA's plans. A boxing trainer claimed that people were better fighting in the ring than in the streets, and boxers claimed they won't get hurt if they fight correctly. However, Doctor Ira Kassen, the author of an article on brain damage in boxing, says that 87 per cent of boxers examined have suffered brain injury. These include many top fighters, shedding doubt on the theory that good boxers don't get hurt.