World Boxing Council chief wants head guards reinstituted in Olympic boxing

The head of the World Boxing Council called Monday for amateur boxing to reinstitute head guards after they were absent during the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Maurcicio Sulaiman, taking issue with a decision by the International Boxing Assn. (AIBA) to remove headgear for male boxers during the just-completed Olympics, said the number of facial cuts that occurred in the competition underline his concern.

“Having the headgear removed was a very dangerous and risky decision, and I was proved [correct] that it was a terrible situation, with the number of cuts,” Sulaiman told The Times in a telephone conversation from his Mexico City office.

Russian bantamweight Vladimir Nikitin last week withdrew from his Olympic semifinal fight against Shakur Stevenson of the U.S. after sustaining multiple facial cuts in his controversial quarterfinal victory.

Sulaiman said he has gathered photos of other fighters who were cut in the competition, and he took issue with the implication of an Aug. 6 New York Times article headlined “Making Olympic Boxing Safer by Eliminating Head Guards.”

In the article, opinions that head guards provide fighters a false sense of security while creating a target for punching were presented, along with the results of a study commissioned by the AIBA that found acute brain injuries declined when head guards were not used.

“[AIBA didn’t] report cuts went up [significantly]. Head guards have been a protection [since 1984],” Sulaiman said. “Kids need to fight with headgear. Female fighters did. There’s so much inconsistency, everything’s so confusing. They just came out and made decisions without doing the thorough research that merits these decisions.

“With multiple fights in a short period of time [during the Olympics], cuts can cause the fighters to be out of the competition.”

Sulaiman said he will press to have headgear reinstituted, but is unsure if AIBA officials will consider communicating with him and promoters who previously objected to allowing professionals to fight in the Olympics and went unheard.

Claressa Shields, who won a boxing gold medal for the U.S., told reporters she expects headgear for women to go away in the 2020 Games.