There were 3 boxers with a Mensa IQ

[KillerIsBack V2]

Bobby Czyz
Henry Milligan
Nicky Piper

As some of you may remember once we talked about Czyz being one so I just did a quick google to see what other athletes are there, and this came up surprisingly.
Cool trivia personally, as a hardcore boxing fan.

For those who don't know, Mensa is a club for those who score on the top 2% internationally recognized IQ tests.

 

[SandaKicker]

I was talking about this with someone else on a different forum.

There’s so much BS in the media with regards to CTE and Neuroscience in general.

It’s not just boxers, football players, there’s an MMA fighter called Aaron Pico who is a member and there are hockey enforcers as well.

So many people think being a contact sports athlete will guarantee you are a dumbass and it’s simply not true.

 

[SandisLL]

Nope of course.
Still, I think for many of them cleaner career offered not less income and better perspectives.
Because plenty of fighters doesn't have enough high income from fighting.

Yes, there are some % from pros that are rich, some % that earned decently….
Others….. and dreamers still keep arriving in combat kitchen.

 

[burningspear]

 

[Boxiana]

Nicky Piper wears glasses, so it’s kinda obvious.

 

[defjaam]

I was talking about this with someone else on a different forum.

There’s so much BS in the media with regards to CTE and Neuroscience in general.

It’s not just boxers, football players, there’s an MMA fighter called Aaron Pico who is a member and there are hockey enforcers as well.

So many people think being a contact sports athlete will guarantee you are a dumbass and it’s simply not true.

Not considering them dumbasses,... The brain/intelligence is way too complex to generalize like that... plus "dumbass" is more personality / overall appereance related than IQ... but I'm pretty sure that getting punched in the head is not healthy.

 

[PlayswellwithLawnDarts]

That will mean something when they’re 60 Dementia laden and can’t find their car keys so they start yelling at the house plants.

 

[SandaKicker]

One of the biggest broscience myths about contact sports - the brain doesn't regenerate new brain cells in response to damage. Completely and utterly false. Three studies that show that it does;

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/08977150260139084

https://www.neurosurgery.theclinics.com/article/S1042-3680(06)00123-9/abstract

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969996109003131

 

[SandaKicker]

... but I'm pretty sure that getting punched in the head is not healthy.

The extent to which it's a risk factor has been completely blown out of proportion.

There's a lot more evidence to suggest a severely Obese person will develop a neurodegenerative disease than there is to suggest a contact sports athlete will, even a boxer.

Anyone who regularly reads the New York Times CTE narrative would conclude that it would be impossible for a boxer to become a member of Mensa as an adult and yet these athletes are proof, maybe in the case of Aaron Pico he didn't start taking blows to the head until he was an adult but I'd guess these boxers started in their mid teens at the latest if not younger.

There are headlines which show brain shrinkage amongst contact sport athlete's, what they don't say is there is a bunch of other lifestyle factors have been repeatedly shown to cause brain shrinkage; chronic stress, pretty much any kind of drug abuse, poor sleeping habits, poor dietary choices, lack of exercise, high body fat etc.

 

[SandaKicker]

That will mean something when they’re 60 Dementia laden and can’t find their car keys so they start yelling at the house plants.

70 years old after nearly 300 fights and 2000 rounds boxed in the era of 15 rounders. Sounds clear as a whistle;



90 years old, over 100 fights at the highest level and the victim of the St. Valentines day massacre;



10% of the population 70 or older have Alzheimer's anwway.

50% of the population 85 or older have it.

 

[PlayswellwithLawnDarts]

70 years old after nearly 300 fights and 2000 rounds boxed in the era of 15 rounders. Sounds clear as a whistle;



90 years old, over 100 fights at the highest level and the victim of the St. Valentines day massacre;



10% of the population 70 or older have Alzheimer's anwway.

50% of the population 85 or older have it.

That’s pretty incredible, How many end up punch drunk and speed up that process though.

 

[SandaKicker]

That’s pretty incredible, How many end up punch drunk and speed up that process though.

I don't know exactly, off hand I can think of a few examples Meldrick Taylor and Tommy Hearns both struck me as punch drunk. There are clips on youtube claiming Fernando Vargas is punch drunk but I don't see it.

Then there's Jerry Quarry and a couple of others who died early with dementia.

From a boxer safety standpoint I'd be every bit as concerned about dying in the ring or suffering a brain injury in a bout as much as I would about suffering a neurodegenerative disease 10-15 years down the line after I stopped boxing.

That's why I'd prefer to see championship bouts cut to 8 rounders because it's usually in the late rounds that injury occurs.

 

[mozfonky]

Bobby Czyz
Henry Milligan
Nicky Piper

As some of you may remember once we talked about Czyz being one so I just did a quick google to see what other athletes are there, and this came up surprisingly.
Cool trivia personally, as a hardcore boxing fan.

For those who don't know, Mensa is a club for those who score on the top 2% internationally recognized IQ tests.

who knows if it's true, i heard that about cyzz, not the other guys. Bobby was a grocery checker last I heard, and broke, not a tragedy in my eyes but certainly, if nothing else, it shows along with all his silly decisions as far as driving drunk or whatever else he did to make his life hard, it shows iq doesn't stop anyone from doing moronic shit.

 

[mozfonky]

That will mean something when they’re 60 Dementia laden and can’t find their car keys so they start yelling at the house plants.

shit that's good man, you should be writing for conan.

 

[mozfonky]

That’s pretty incredible, How many end up punch drunk and speed up that process though.

my theory is, like anything else, people have different abilities to deal with things. So, it is a gamble, and in my eyes, not a good one. I remember around 2000, i decided to look up a lot of the guys who i'd followed when i was young, and most of the stories were sad, Arguello, Pryor, Chacon, Benitez, of course there is also hagler, leonard and duran who seem ok in comparison. They all have taken some damage, no doubt about it. Anyway, at that time, there was a young mma fighter, pro who had just come back from a beating a few days prior, i told him about what I'd just looked up the previous weekend, I tried to warn him about making sure the tradeoff will be worth it. He didn't listen, got kayoed a few more times for measly paydays, last I heard he was working as a corrections officer in a prison. The point was, as I tried to tell him, "you can be broke without all the damage". Now, i don't know why Jimmy Thunder went through hard times, but I wouldn't doubt the sport and the damage didn't have something to do with it.

 

[SandaKicker]

who knows if it's true, i heard that about cyzz, not the other guys. Bobby was a grocery checker last I heard, and broke, not a tragedy in my eyes but certainly, if nothing else, it shows along with all his silly decisions as far as driving drunk or whatever else he did to make his life hard, it shows iq doesn't stop anyone from doing moronic shit.

Czyz was put into a month long coma from a car crash though which might have done as much damage as his boxing career combined.

 

[mozfonky]

Czyz was put into a month long coma from a car crash though which might have done as much damage as his boxing career combined.

oh ya, forgot about that, but wasn't he driving drunk before that, had his licence revoked?

 

[SandaKicker]

oh ya, forgot about that, but wasn't he driving drunk before that, had his licence revoked?

Yeah I think that true, he was drink driving and sacked from showtime before that.

 

[Absolut]

my theory is, like anything else, people have different abilities to deal with things. So, it is a gamble, and in my eyes, not a good one. I remember around 2000, i decided to look up a lot of the guys who i'd followed when i was young, and most of the stories were sad, Arguello, Pryor, Chacon, Benitez, of course there is also hagler, leonard and duran who seem ok in comparison. They all have taken some damage, no doubt about it. Anyway, at that time, there was a young mma fighter, pro who had just come back from a beating a few days prior, i told him about what I'd just looked up the previous weekend, I tried to warn him about making sure the tradeoff will be worth it. He didn't listen, got kayoed a few more times for measly paydays, last I heard he was working as a corrections officer in a prison. The point was, as I tried to tell him, "you can be broke without all the damage". Now, i don't know why Jimmy Thunder went through hard times, but I wouldn't doubt the sport and the damage didn't have something to do with it.

this. It’s not a formula. Some people can smoke forever and not get lung cancer. Some non smokers get it. Playing the odds...

 

[Kim Jong Un]

70 years old after nearly 300 fights and 2000 rounds boxed in the era of 15 rounders. Sounds clear as a whistle;



90 years old, over 100 fights at the highest level and the victim of the St. Valentines day massacre;



10% of the population 70 or older have Alzheimer's anwway.

50% of the population 85 or older have it.

How have I never seen this interview? Great stuff!