Boxing injury epidemiology in Italy: a series report collected from 2016 to 2022

BACKGROUND: Boxing is an ancient sport practiced as amateur or professional activity. Recent changes in amateur boxing rules seemed to make these two sports more similar regarding the injury profile. Aim of this study was to com-pare the injury rate in amateur and professional boxing after the rules' change.METHODS: From September 2016 to June 2022, two of the authors recorded all medical conditions occurred during male boxing activity while overseeing the medical assistance of boxing events. The total number of boxing matches (and boxers) during the events was recorded. In case of a medical condition, age and body weight of the athlete were collected as well as if he was competing in amateur or professional boxing. Data related to the type of injury, treat-ment, hospital referral, other investigations, final diagnosis and boxing decision were recorded.RESULTS: In 60 months, 75 medical conditions were recorded in 36 boxing events and 349 matches (698 boxers, 54% amateur). The mean body weight of injured boxers was 68.7 +/- 9.5 kg, with no difference in respect to non-injured boxers (68.6 +/- 9.2 kg). No difference in injury rate was met when comparing different weight divisions. No major trauma was observed. Among different injury rate parameters, only the injury rate per 100 athletes proved to be higher in professional (20.19) than amateur (9.06) boxers (odd ratio 2.54). Facial wounds were the most prevalent injury, with no difference between amateur (11) and professional (4) boxers.CONCLUSIONS: Comparing amateur and professional boxing, our study showed a higher injury rate per 100 athletes in professional boxers, even if all other injury rate exposure parameters resulted not different. When an injury oc-curred, the kind of verdict and the type of injury were not different between amateur and professional boxing.