Nigerian Samuel Peter's first world title bout today will be a title defense, thanks to a twist of fate and the complicated state of the heavyweight division.
The 27-year-old Las Vegas-based fighter had been scheduled to challenge Oleg Maskaev for the World Boxing Council (WBC) title at Madison Square Garden today before the champion withdrew with a back injury.
The WBC, who made Peter beat James Toney twice to earn top-contender status, tagged him their interim heavyweight champion, a title he is to defend today against US fighter Jameel McCline.
"The switch of opponents doesn't bother me," Peter said. "I'm a fighter and I will go in and do what I have to do."
McCline, who was expecting to take on former champion Vitali Klitschko on Sept. 22, saw that fall through when Klitschko had to undergo back surgery.
It then looked as if the 37-year-old McCline would take on DaVarryl Williamson on the undercard of the WBC title bout between champion Maskaev and Peter. But Maskaev then dropped out, also with a back injury, and rather than scrap the entire program, promoters went looking for an opponent to fight Peter.
Now McCline is happy to have another shot at a heavyweight title. He fought Chris Byrd for the International Boxing Federation title in 2004, knocking the champion down in the second round before losing a split decision.
He got another chance against Nikolai Valuev for the World Boxing Association crown, but that fight was stopped in the third when McCline hurt his knee -- an injury that required surgery.
Peter, whose chance to see his name in the title mix has been such a long time coming despite a 28-1 record that includes 22 knockouts, said he plans to keep his title -- and eventually shed the "interim" tag.
"I am taking over the division, so McCline can just be there for me so that I can bring him down," he said.
Critics of boxing say the sport causes brain damage, but a new study says the evidence for this -- at amateur level, anyway -- is meager.
The paper, published in the British Medical Journal, reviewed 36 published studies into the risk of chronic traumatic brain injury among amateur boxers, of which only 17 studies had the best-quality methodology and technology for measuring this.
Only four of the 17 found any indicator of injury risk, and this was seen among a minority of amateur boxers.
"There is no strong evidence to associate chronic traumatic brain injury with amateur boxing," said the investigators, led by Mike Loosemore of the Olympic Medical Institute at Northwick Park Hospital, northwest London.
In an editorial, also published in next Saturday's British Medical Journal, Australian neurologist and sports physician Paul McCrory says the nature of boxing "has changed substantially" over the decades.
In the 1930s to 1950s, a boxer's career generally lasted 10 to 20 years and involved up to 1,000 professional fights, he said.
"Many boxers also became professional sparring partners or boxers in tents or booths, where they fought up to 30 to 40 unsupervised bouts each day ... Because today's boxers have shorter careers and reduced exposure to repetitive head trauma, the likelihood of [chronic traumatic brain injury] developing is probably low," McCrory said.
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