Beards in boxing

[Ilya Muromets]

Beards have traditionally and historically not been allowed in boxing. Recently they have been allowing them in the US and they have been getting bigger. This is Broner now. Are they going to allow him to fight like that? Is his clean shaven opponent not going to protest? Tell me that doesn't have a cushioning effect!

[Deleted_Scenes]

Beards have traditionally and historically not been allowed in boxing. Recently they have been allowing them in the US and they have been getting bigger. This is Broner now. Are they going to allow him to fight like that? Is his clean shaven opponent not going to protest? Tell me that doesn't have a cushioning effect!

It will certainly protect against soft tissue damage, but not so sure about knockouts or brain trauma, since those are caused more by fast rotation of the head and the brain bouncing around inside the skull.

Saying that, I'd still definitely prefer beards to be banned in the ring.

[Ilya Muromets]

"...but not so sure about knockouts or brain trauma, since those are caused more by fast rotation of the head and the brain bouncing around inside the skull. "


A beard will cushion the impact of a blow resulting in less shock and trauma to the neck, head, and brain.

[Impractical Poster]

A beard is not cushioning a blow to any extent to matter. Bas Ruten explained this in detail regarding MMA on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous to think it gives extra protection.

[oogiebe]

A beard is not cushioning a blow to any extent to matter. Bas Ruten explained this in detail regarding MMA on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous to think it gives extra protection.

Thank you. Perhaps we can put an end to this already!

[greg]

..considering the fact that beards belong to what is known as "secondary sexual characteristics" I wouldn't want to have any close contact with the individual above purely out of hygienic reasons..

[oogiebe]

..considering the fact that beards belong to what is known as "secondary sexual characteristics" I wouldn't want to have any close contact with the individual above purely out of hygienic reasons..

EWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!! When I wrestled; before matches, we wouldn't shower for a day or so and NOT put on deodorant to sicken our opponent. I thought that was bad, but your post gave me all kinds of creepy! LMFAO!!!! Nicely done!

[Ilya Muromets]

A beard is not cushioning a blow to any extent to matter. Bas Ruten explained this in detail regarding MMA on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous to think it gives extra protection.

It's ridiculous to think it doesn't. Plain simple common sense - obviously not common now - will give you your answer. Might as well say a bike helmet won't cushion a blow to the head (It has cushioning material under the shell - what for?). How about holding up a pillow filled with, say, horse hair in front of your jaw. Do you think that might give you some protection against a blow, some cushioning effect? Duh. PS Let's see exactly what your Bas Ruten said. Link.

[oogiebe]

A beard is not cushioning a blow to any extent to matter. Bas Ruten explained this in detail regarding MMA on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous to think it gives extra protection.

It's ridiculous to think it doesn't. Plain simple common sense - obviously not common now - will give you your answer. Might as well say a bike helmet won't cushion a blow to the head (It has cushioning material under the shell - what for?). How about holding up a pillow filled with, say, horse hair in front of your jaw. Do you think that might give you some protection against a blow, some cushioning effect. Duh. PS Let's see exactly what your Bas Ruten said. Link.

What's ridiculous is comparing a hairy chinstrap to a bike helmet. A pillow? not comparable. I'll wait for the link as well.

[Ilya Muromets]

A beard is not cushioning a blow to any extent to matter. Bas Ruten explained this in detail regarding MMA on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous to think it gives extra protection.

It's ridiculous to think it doesn't. Plain simple common sense - obviously not common now - will give you your answer. Might as well say a bike helmet won't cushion a blow to the head (It has cushioning material under the shell - what for?). How about holding up a pillow filled with, say, horse hair in front of your jaw. Do you think that might give you some protection against a blow, some cushioning effect. Duh. PS Let's see exactly what your Bas Ruten said. Link.

What's ridiculous is comparing a hairy chinstrap to a bike helmet. A pillow? not comparable. I'll wait for the link as well.

Cushioning material, Oogyboogy, all of them. This shouldn't even be a matter for debate but simple common sense. Beards have always been illegal in boxing up to now, and now what, only in the US?

[oogiebe]

It's ridiculous to think it doesn't. Plain simple common sense - obviously not common now - will give you your answer. Might as well say a bike helmet won't cushion a blow to the head (It has cushioning material under the shell - what for?). How about holding up a pillow filled with, say, horse hair in front of your jaw. Do you think that might give you some protection against a blow, some cushioning effect. Duh. PS Let's see exactly what your Bas Ruten said. Link.

What's ridiculous is comparing a hairy chinstrap to a bike helmet. A pillow? not comparable. I'll wait for the link as well.

Cushioning material, Oogyboogy, all of them. This shouldn't even be a matter for debate but simple common sense. Beards have always been illegal in boxing up to now, and now what, only in the US?

LOL! Stop that!
One would think it may take out the sting, but not the concusiveness (sp?) of the blows.

[boxing_rocks]

Yes, common sense says that a good size beard produces SOME padding. They even use horse hair padding in boxing gloves.

Huge beards like Broner's should be banned.

[Impractical Poster]

A beard is not cushioning a blow to any extent to matter. Bas Ruten explained this in detail regarding MMA on more than one occasion. It's ridiculous to think it gives extra protection.

It's ridiculous to think it doesn't. Plain simple common sense - obviously not common now - will give you your answer. Might as well say a bike helmet won't cushion a blow to the head (It has cushioning material under the shell - what for?). How about holding up a pillow filled with, say, horse hair in front of your jaw. Do you think that might give you some protection against a blow, some cushioning effect? Duh. PS Let's see exactly what your Bas Ruten said. Link.

There is barely any hair between the fist and the chin. It's mostly air. The amount of protection is so minuscule MMA doesn't even site it out of several reasons for trimming a beard to a certain length before a bout. If I was to get plowed by a Wilder haymaker, it wouldn't matter if I was clean shaven or had a ZZ Top beard. The damage sustained would be the same.

[Impractical Poster]

Yes, common sense says that a good size beard produces SOME padding. They even use horse hair padding in boxing gloves.

Huge beards like Broner's should be banned.

Yes they do. There is a lot of compacted horse hair in the gloves to produce the proper padding. Facial hair adds so minuscule extra protection it's not worth mentioning.

[Impractical Poster]

Bas states it's about as much protection as wrapping a plastic bag around your head.

Think about it. How much extra protection is a few millimeters of hair going to give you against a 800psi punch?

[oogiebe]

Bas states it's about as much protection as wrapping a plastic bag around your head.

Think about it. How much extra protection is a few millimeters of hair going to give you against a 800psi punch?

An immaterial amount. I'm sorry I started this up again...didn't mean to. It's just so ridiculous to imagine how any facial hair helps. I'm sure if you hit a bald man on top of the head with a two by four the result would be identical as if he had hair.

[brilo33]

iam in my 30s, but iam very against the beards

[SenorPipino]

Is this deja vou all over again?

Didn't the OP cover this topic ad naseum about a month ago after Wilder-Ortiz?

Has he uncovered new evidence to support his ludicrous claim?

[Impractical Poster]

iam in my 30s, but iam very against the beards

Ironic given your name

[Deleted_Scenes]

"...but not so sure about knockouts or brain trauma, since those are caused more by fast rotation of the head and the brain bouncing around inside the skull. "


A beard will cushion the impact of a blow resulting in less shock and trauma to the neck, head, and brain.

Headguards don't protect against brain trauma. Some studies say they amplify it, by transferring the shock around the head instead of letting the jaw absorb some of it.

[lazboy]

"...but not so sure about knockouts or brain trauma, since those are caused more by fast rotation of the head and the brain bouncing around inside the skull. "


A beard will cushion the impact of a blow resulting in less shock and trauma to the neck, head, and brain.

Headguards don't protect against brain trauma. Some studies say they amplify it, by transferring the shock around the head instead of letting the jaw absorb some of it.

Thank you yes! I read recently about this recently. There’s other negatives for using them as they hinder vision. I guess they would protect from cuts though.

[ldlamb]

No one who actually takes this stuff seriously believes that a beard provides any protection against the type of force used in the average punch.

[Ilya Muromets]

"...but not so sure about knockouts or brain trauma, since those are caused more by fast rotation of the head and the brain bouncing around inside the skull. "


A beard will cushion the impact of a blow resulting in less shock and trauma to the neck, head, and brain.

Headguards don't protect against brain trauma. Some studies say they amplify it, by transferring the shock around the head instead of letting the jaw absorb some of it.

I don't care for amateur headquards but i don't know about them amplifying blows. I think amateur boxing has a pretty good safety record. A mass of hair obviously acts as a cushion though. If you can't comprehend the simple physics of that, as usual extrapolate to an extreme... a huge mountain man beard - and boxing is getting there - you think that's not going to cushion an uppercut even a little?

[jezzamundo]

Beards have been illegal in most places in boxing because they can be used to scratch an opponents eyes/face, not because of any cushioning effect on punches. Looking at it from a purely scientific POV there would be some cushioning, but it would be very minor (I would expect it would absorb much less than 1% of the energy from a punch), even with a big beard like Broner's.

[jamamb]

id think stubble could actually be worse? because its more brissly and can scratch the opponent easyier

id think maybe at best massive beards could give some tiny degree of extra protection from cuts, but would be very trivial as protecting from kos