Functional performance of the upper limb and the most common boxing-related injuries in male boxers

The medical question

Which upper limb injuries are more common in amateur boxers than in men who do not box, and do boxers’ hands and arms work any worse?

The Fight Medicine Research Institute uses this evidence to frame questions about hand and thumb injuries in boxers, the function of the hand and arm afterwards, and the part played by gloves. The study’s self-reported data and its young, male, amateur sample determine which questions it can inform.

Summary

In a questionnaire survey, 62 male amateur boxers in Greece reported more boxer’s knuckle and thumb injuries than 75 non-boxers but scored no worse on two scales of upper limb function.

What the work reports

• In 2021 the authors sent an electronic questionnaire on upper limb injuries, with two function scales (quick-DASH for the whole arm and PRWE for the wrist and hand), to male members of the Greek boxing federation and to male military recruits with no martial arts background. Of 113 boxers and 147 non-boxers who answered, 62 boxers and 75 non-boxers, all under 35, were compared.
• Boxer’s knuckle was reported by 16 boxers (25.81%) and 8 non-boxers (10.67%), and thumb injuries by 30 boxers (48.39%) and 11 non-boxers (14.67%). The boxers’ mean quick-DASH score was lower, meaning better function (12.55 against 15.65), PRWE scores were similar (8.61 against 9.25), and no boxer reported upper limb surgery, against 11 non-boxers.
• The authors conclude that amateur boxing appears to have no long-term consequences for upper limb function. They also report that glove size in heavy bag training was associated with finger fractures, thumb injuries and ulnar-sided wrist pain, and they describe their explanations for this as partly speculation.

Limits to keep in mind

• All injuries were self-reported by questionnaire with no medical diagnosis, and the authors note that self-reported data in boxing may not be accurate.
• All participants were under 35 and the boxers were amateurs; the authors say results may differ in older or professional boxers.
• The authors could not compare injuries in competition with injuries in training, and had too few women and boxers over 35 to study.

Source issues recorded

• The abstract gives the mean quick-DASH scores in the order 15.65 and 12.55 after saying the score was lower in boxers. Table 1 of the article gives 12.55 for boxers and 15.65 for non-boxers. This record follows the table.
• For glove size, the results report significant associations with thumb injuries (p = 0.022) and finger fractures (p = 0.032). The discussion reports associations with finger fractures (p = 0.005) and ulnar-sided wrist pain (p = 0.041). This record names the three injuries as the abstract does and gives no p values.
• The Crossref record gives the fourth author’s family name as “I. Giakoumakis”, and Europe PMC lists him as “I Giakoumakis S”. This record treats Giakoumakis as the family name, in line with the initials SG used for him in the article’s author contributions.

Publication status and notices

Published in BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, a peer-reviewed journal. Original research article in BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Form of this work: Version of record. The version of record is the final article as issued by its publisher.

Europe PMC links a preprint of this article: Research Square, 6 June 2022. Linked item.

No correction or retraction notice was found in Crossref or Europe PMC when this record was checked.

Fight Medicine Research Institute contribution

Fight Medicine Research Institute selected and catalogued this study, prepared an original research summary, verified its bibliographic details, and maintains the associated citation record.

PDF files

Article details

Relationship

External research catalogued by the Fight Medicine Research Institute. The original authors, journal and DOI are unchanged.

Published online

1 September 2022

Repository date

1 September 2022 (Europe PMC first-publication date)

Date used here

1 September 2022 (Crossref publisher deposit, online publication date)

Rights

CC BY 4.0. Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0), as recorded by Europe PMC and the licence link in the source record. The summary on this page is Fight Medicine Research Institute’s own wording. No text or figure from the article is reproduced here. Licence terms.

Source check

12 November 2026, against PubMed Central full text, Crossref and Europe PMC. Checked under the direction of Casey C. Sears, Founder. An LLM was utilized as a research tool with direct human oversight.

Appraisal

The check covered bibliographic details, links, licence and notices. It is not a formal critical appraisal of the full paper.

Clinical review

None. This record is a research summary, not clinical education.

Funding and conflicts

The article states that the study had no funding and that the hospital covered mailing costs (pre-paid envelopes). The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Catalog

FH-063, added 12 November 2026

Cite the original work

These files cite the work by its own authors, journal and DOI. Fight Medicine Research Institute appears only in a note, as curator of this catalog page.

Vasileios Giannatos, Andreas Panagopoulos, Panagiotis Antzoulas, Savvas I. Giakoumakis, John Lakoumentas, Antonis Kouzelis. Functional performance of the upper limb and the most common boxing-related injuries in male boxers: a retrospective, observational, comparative study with non-boxing population. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2022;14(1):162. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-022-00558-3

Copy citationRISBibTeXCSL JSONEndNote

Related on this website

• Fighter Health: Hand and wrist injuries