Dr Joe Estwanik
Episode 15
13 MAY 2019
An orthopedic surgeon who is in the Carolina Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a past president of the Association of Ringside Physicians and was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Society. Born and raised Catholic, he was a weightlifter back in his college days and has gone on to be involved with sports internationally, serving as a ringside doctor for boxing and MMA to the tune of over ten thousand bouts that he has been present for in his career as a ringside doctor. Some years ago he authored a book called, “Sports Medicine for the Combat Arts,” and now, this month, he contributed a full chapter to a new worldwide textbook called, “The Sports Medicine Physician.” He now has his sights on creating a website centered around physicians against abortion.
Guest Quotes:
“The glory is the pros and the big shows and the worldwide pay-per-views, but when it comes down to it, they all start as youth.”
“When I’m a fan I love for it to be exciting. When I’m sitting in what I call the ‘hot seat,’ the ringside physician, the seat right at the ring, I hope for a boring fight.”
“I have loved this mission, especially taking care of the youth, the kids… I get a lot of youth, disadvantaged youth, who really haven’t been exposed to a physician.”
“I have some great stories… As tough and rough — for instance, I traveled with our national team, USA Boxing, all over the world, and I am allowed to take a guest, and quite often my wife. And in far away places, be it Russia, be it Bangkok, whatever it is, my wife will come along with me. And ya’ know, here are guys fighting the toughest people all over the world for USA Boxing. And in the end, at night, they may come in the room and just want to talk with my wife or myself and just hang around and be lonely, as tough as you think they are when they flip that switch.”
“If we can keep politics out of this, and let people just be people, I have seen our USA boxers sitting next to the competitor from whatever country it will be, and they’re sharing their radios, they’re sharing the songs, they’re sharing their headphones, they’re laughing, they’re communicating in whatever way it is, it’s just youth being youth and left to their own, it’s a great world.”
“Even Benjamin Franklin said, ‘God heals. The doctor sends the bill’.”
“Left to ourselves, different countries… different religions, it can all work.”
“I’ve even asked in Vegas when I’ve been there for fights and they kind of look at me like I’m one strange dude asking where the church is instead of other maybe more popular questions.”
Related link:
Dr. Joe’s Sports Medicine for the Combat Arts book