Being a ringside physician is a difficult task.
These doctors must assess the condition of boxers on a moments notice, in front of thousands of fans. A live boxing match is not the friendly confine of a sterile examining room most practicing MDs are accustomed to plying their trade in.
Unfortunately for the men and women who are assigned to keep fighters safe under the laws of sanctioned violence here in the United States, their decisions in relation to the stopping or allowing the action in the ring to continue are under the microscopes of millions.
Saturday night in Las Vegas, with four facial lacerations and a crimson mask professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes would be proud of, Michael Katsidis defeated Czar Amonsot over the course of twelve grueling rounds. After the fight, Katsidis needed 26 stitches to close the cuts suffered at the hands and head of the young Filipino fighter.
The bleeding and swelling began in the second round, following a sizzling right hand by Amonsot and progressed after an accidental head-butt and other blows during the fights progression. Three of the cuts were on the left eye alone, with the other being under the right eye.
I have never attended medical school and I barely passed high school anatomy, but it does not take an expert to question ringside doctor David Watson for allowing Katsidis to continue with four gruesome cuts.
Katsidis was aggressive and winning the fight on the score cards, but it was clear that he could not see Amonsot’s right hands due to the extensive damage to his left eye. That fact alone put Katsidis in a situation where he could be severely injured.
On another front, Dr. Watson has put himself and other ringside physicians in a difficult situation for future bouts. If a ringside doctor in a Nevada boxing bout stops a fighter on cuts, he better look like hell and have over four cuts. What Watson did on Saturday night by allowing Katsidis to brawl on gives future fighters and their managers the ammunition to file an appeal for a loss that was attributed to a stop on cuts.
Argument being, “Hey if you let that Katsidis fellow fight with those nasty cuts, why did you stop my fight short with only one?”
This is not the first time Watson’s ringside decisions have come into question. In his first championship bout, Shane Mosley vs. Fernando Vargas I, Dr. Watson allowed Vargas to continuing fighting with severe swelling over the left eye. Watson’s actions on that occasion were well documented by Elisa Harrison of Bragging Right Corner.
So if Dr. Watson is the ringside doctor for a fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he loves to cover the big ones (according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s website Watson’s only other boxing assignments this year have been De La Hoya – Mayweather, and a smaller card at the luxurious Wynn Resort), you can expect the participants to carry on in rather severe conditions, regardless of the possibly dangerous consequences.
I am sure readers will send me a scathing e-mailing stating that boxing is a sport for men’s men and injuries and blood are part of the terrain. To that I say, if it was your son, or friend in the ring on Saturday night, would you have wanted the bout stopped?
