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(APR 24) As a neutral observer who saw the
Sumya Anani v. Katie Dallam bout---here is what I saw. Dallam was
clearly much much bigger than Anani. However, she had almost no skill
whatsoever, and that's being generous. She did not belong in that
ring. What she did have was pure toughness. Dallam could take a punch,
and that was to her detriment because most fighters would have been less
hurt by getting knocked out. Anani hit her often, hit her hard, and
kept the pace fast. Dallam's bigger size may have actually helped her
to absorb more punishment, and again, taking more rather than simply
being knocked out quickly made her suffer a greater beating, which is
generally more harmful to the brain.
It was a fight that was bad in its inception
and probably Dallam's trainer should have thrown the towel in or
the referee or doctor should have stopped it much sooner. It was a
total mismatch. Fights need to be stopped when someone is just taking a
beating, even if they are taking it well and giving a futile effort at
fighting back. It is often exactly those type of fighters that wind up
dying or suffering brain damage. In their defense, the reason why they
didn't stop it is that Dallam always took the punches and kept fighting
back, albeit ineffectively. Because of her toughness, when she finally
went, it was too late. Certainly though, I as a trainer would never put
my fighter in a fight having such little skill, or I would stop it as
soon as I realized it was that bad of a mismatch.
I am upset that Dateline is doing a piece on
Dallam because I suspect that there are anti-women's boxing political
motives behind it all. You certainly don't see them doing a piece on
football or swimming or race-car driving every time there is a death or
injury in those sports, which are statistically less safe than boxing.
Yet with boxing, when a couple women get injured, which is statistically
negligible when compared to other much more dangerous sports and when
considering how few the injuries are in women's boxing, there is some
cautionary tale piece done by a major network. Where's the positive
pieces about women's boxing? I just wish the media would be honest and
fair. Adam Pollack
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