New Man : Boxer Has Plastic Surgery to Reduce Effect of Cuts

Cut enough times against his will that he apparently had no fear when it was voluntary, Troy Dorsey has taken boxing where models, Michael Jackson and half of Hollywood have gone: the world of cosmetic surgery.

In order to give him an edge, so to speak, in fighting--and kickboxing, his other profession--Dorsey had his skin peeled from his face and a raised nub on his skull filed down.

In his last five fights, Dorsey has sustained 12 cuts, requiring 70 stitches. He lost four of those bouts as a result of those wounds.

His last fight--last May against Oscar De La Hoya--was stopped in the first round because of a two-inch cut on his forehead.

“I was cutting from the inside out,” Dorsey told Reuters from his home in Mansfield, Tex. “The bone was just too sharp.”

Describing the surgery, Dorsey said to imagine headphones on the head as the arc along which an incision was made. Then the skin was peeled away from head and face and “they trimmed a centimeter off the bone of my eyebrows and then they filed it smooth. Then before they sewed it together, they cut 1 1/2 inches off the skin that they pulled down.”

De La Hoya, when told of Dorsey’s surgery, blanched at the thought.

“I’d never do that,” said De La Hoya. “If it came to that, I’d just quit boxing. I guess he’s really determined to win something, right?”

Dorsey, 31, a former International Boxing Federation featherweight champion who is preparing for Friday’s pay-per-view kickboxing tournament, said doctors also cut one-fourth inch of skin off of his eyelids.