traditionally, I’ve alvays been quite dove-ish; I was never interested in fighting, but this was partly because I was afraid.
after a few years of being a bicycle messenger and taking hits orders of magnitude larger in mass than even the burliest human, I’m not afraid of getting hit anymore. but that doesn’t mean I can fight.
I took a brief course in Tai Chi one semester long ago. The writer of our text outlined that, in terms of body mechanics, a successful strike is a successful strike no matter what the discipline. it flows up your legs and is perfectly timed to connect with the opponent by the time the blow flows out of one’s fist, accompanied by inhalation from the diaphragm. Master Chen spoke favorably of western boxing as one example of this truth. In class, we did it all in slow motion with no opponent trying to wriggle out of our way. when I see a boxer land a good blow, it is, to me, a fascinating sight. it is not mere aggrandizement when proponents of boxing refer to it as “the sweet science.”
but as @miasm and others have pointed out, with current medical knowledge regarding concussions, the officiating needs an overhaul.
Some people with terminal diseases want to die yet those who are willing to make it happen are, in most places, criminally liable for their death. There are many things that mutually consenting adults can’t do. Boxing doesn’t seem to have (m)any positives for all its negatives.
Yep… and that’s it. You (and any educated person) knows the kinds of damage being done. Fans of it don’t care. It’s not them who has to manage a boxer’s health problems. They might be mutually consenting adults, but I’d argue they have the minds of children, so are they able to make a decision over consent?
My main problem is that in other sports the injuries are accidents. In boxing the injuries are deliberately delivered.
That’s an excellent point, of course. Ritualized combat has been a foundation of sport longer than humans have been human, but sometimes the evolution takes it pretty far. Look at fencing. Padded clothes, strong protective helmets, (at least since that Smirnov incident) and nerfed weapons mean that most fencing injuries today amount to twisted ankles, bruises, and probably a groin pull or two. Even American football, for all its sins and dangers, is still ritualized and regulated, with lots of safety equipment. The goal is to get the ball over there, not to just beat someone senseless until they can’t beat you senseless anymore.
So running, wrestling (not rasslin), speed skating, bobsled, downhill skiing, high jumping, pole vaulting . . . are not sports due to lack of balls? Ok, the women, but still.
Nah, it’s not the presence or absence of the ball per se. It’s that those sports like football use their violence to move the ball toward a goal, or to prevent the opponents from doing so. In boxing, you’re either winning or losing a fight, nothing more. Racing of all sorts is as sporty as anything with balls. So are other sports involving physical competition to see who might be fleetest, or can leap the highest or farthest, or toss a spear or disc or ball or telephone pole or whatever.
Hell, boxing is a sport, more so than, say, cockfighting or bearbaiting. But I don’t believe it’s a particularly good sport.
That’s taking the argument to its extreme. Once you end a life, you can’t get the person back. But boxing is rarely immediately fatal —the brain injuries accumulate, as they do in rugby and american football. Shall we ban those too?
I have to agree, but can only speak for myself. I was sent to a boxing club as a child to toughen me up. I hated it then (the treatment failed) and I still can’t see the point of doing repeated and cumulative damage to my best asset so won’t actively assist others to do it. But that’s my judgement call to make and actively legislating to stop others from doing it is a step too far IMO.
Doctors universally say boxing should be banned. Your move.
Well, except for fight doctors. And doctors that happen to be fans of the sport. And doctors who are themselves boxers. And those doctors who don’t really have an opinion on the matter. But yeah. Universally.
It’s still a sport for many reasons. People want to watch it. People want to do it. People want to bet on it. Fighters love the money, but they fight because it is what they most want to do. Becoming even a minor pro requires intense dedication to the sport - cardio, strength, training, diet - all constant on the mind. Nobody steps into that ring who doesn’t absolutely want to.
Maybe I misunderstood the post, though, and you wonder why it’s still a sport when MMA is so much better?
I’d advocate for legal euthanasia for those with terminal disease over legal boxing any day. One’s a form of compassion and mercy while the other is two dolts hitting each other because they want to.
As I said, other sports are based around goals that aren’t “bash that guy’s head good-like” which is why I’d be less inclined to ban them over boxing. As I alluded to above my biggest problem with boxing isn’t that people do it (Hey, get brain damage - that’s OK with me), it’s that stupid people watch it and its existence stands as a statement to the young that fistfights are a legitimate leisure activity.
I don’t watch boxing, but just a few days ago I was youtubing Muhammed Ali clips for over an hour. I had forgotten what an incredibly charismatic & genuine person he had been in his time, and his footwork is amazing. I watched several fight clips interspersed among the others. The one where he surprises schoolchildren is great! Or the Wilt Chamberlain/Ali challenge interview, or when he talked that vet off a ledge.
I know, I know, he’s still alive. But it took it’s toll, he’s just as genuine & doubtless quite charismatic, yet the last time I saw him on a program it clearly wasn’t his advanced age that had him so changed.
I get the impression that the protective equipment in American football allows for greater impacts and consequently, more terrible injuries.
The same goes for boxing gloves. I’d like to see lighter gloves ala MMA, just there to protect the face and knuckles from cuts (really only for the purpose of allowing the fight to continue for longer but who wants to see the gore-baths that are bare-knuckle boxing? (oh ok, I’ve watched that too)).
The lighter the gloves, the more likely a strike is to score a TKO or KO and the sooner the fight ends. This would have to be in conjunction with more stringent definitions of ‘not able to adequately protect oneself’, the abolishment of standing eight counts and better training for referees so they can recognise when a fight should be stopped, even if the fighter is still standing.
At first it seems counter-intuitive and the fans would probably take some time to get used to it but that day’s gonna come. Sooner or later.
I was under the impression the gloves served to protect the hands rather than the head. Without gloves, it’s not as easy to hit the opponent’s head safely, so it’s done less and fights have fewer knock outs. Is this more QI misinformation? It certainly seems logical. And seems to match up with what little I know about how boxing used to be done.
Yes. I am part of the club of complete idiots who refuse to make blanket statements about ALL DOCTORS UNIVERSALLY condemning something. Silly, dumb me. Still, I can at least comfort myself with the knowledge that since being a super genius for some reason appears to go hand-in-hand with a compulsion to engage in needless ad hominem attacks with strangers in internet comment sections, being dumb ain’t all bad.
