Question:

Do injury stipulations exist in boxing contracts?

by  |  earlier

0 LIKES UnLike

Do injury stipulations exist in boxing contracts?
Last week, fight fans learned that a high-end February 2011 bout between WBO/WBC bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel and WBA super flyweight interim champ Nonito Donaire came dangerously close to dissolving after Montiel was involved in a motorcycle accident. 
Fortunately Montiel wasn’t badly injured.  But if he was, interested parties would have had to deal with a question that often plagues other sports: how to deal with unforeseeable accidents that affect the contractual demands of an athlete.
In other sports, contracts and organizations often impede players from activities that could result in injury.  A good example of this occurred this summer with New York Knicks’ forward Amare Stoudemire.  Stoudemire wanted to represent Team USA in the World
Championships, but was ultimately barred from doing so because he didn’t have insurance.  Since athletes are business assets, this logic makes sense: if organizations are going to invest millions in a guy, it stands to reason they would want some kind of insurance
he’ll be in tip-top shape when it comes time for him to perform.
At the same time, a sport like basketball is different than boxing in that it’s a team game, and goes on without one player.  So whereas Stoudemire could have been sitting on the sidelines watching his team play, a serious Montiel injury would have meant
postponing an entire bout, since he’s his team’s sole competing representative.  Does that change things?
When faced with the question of insurance stipulations in boxing, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said they exist, much like any other sport.  The catch is that promoters must know “about what they [athletes] do [in getting injured].  If it’s publicized, Arum said,
“we put [insurance] in.  But in most cases, we don’t know what [fighters] are up to. I mean, why would we think motor biking? This guy [Montiel] wasn’t into motorbikes. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t riding a motor bike. I mean, someone was riding for him."
Kathy Duva of Main Events Promotions added that “if you have a big fight, you would typically get ’non-appearance insurance,’” which states that fighters won’t get paid if they injure themselves before the fight. 
Typically, though, most fights contain no clause of that nature.
Insuring fighters’ injuries by ruling out certain activities also seems destined to fall down another slope.  If a fighter can sign away the possibility that he skydive, for instance, couldn’t he also feasibly sign off just about anything, such as normal
habits or hobbies?  Where should the line be drawn, anyway?
Though manager Cameron Dunkin has never seen a contract of that kind of extreme nature, he sympathizes with the cause.  Dunkin managed former champion Diego Corrales for years until he was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash in 2007.  He said: “I had Diego
Corrales for years and I never wanted him on a motorcycle [...] You have so many tragedies in the history of boxing these things. It’s just something that is terrible. I think [contracts] should [highlight stipulations] – especially if you give a guy a lot
of money, you should have some say in what he’s doing as a hobby."
But really?  Who’s going to stop motorcycling because you tell him to?  Who’s going to stop going to the club because it’s stipulated on a contract?
The fact is that boxers tend to be reckless, and do reckless things.  Contracts won’t stop that.
Another possibility is the one adopted by the NBA.  As opposed to handing out contracts stipulating what players can and cannot do, the NBA goes by individual player insurance.  Each player is responsible to have the proper clearance and insurance if he
wishes to partake in other activities.  Should something happen to the player in question, teams are paid out prospective losses by insurance companies.  And in the case of an athlete not having the insurance, the organization has the final say, as with Stoudemire. 

 Tags:

   Report
SIMILAR QUESTIONS
CAN YOU ANSWER?

Question Stats

Latest activity: earlier.
This question has 0 answers.

BECOME A GUIDE

Share your knowledge and help people by answering questions.