The Fight Against Boxing The Unworthy Fight Against Fighting The entertaining sport of boxing, an athletic event consisting of numerous health conflictions, has been receiving some heat from legal and medical advocates, yet Some of the qualities that have open boxing to attack have, at the same time, been its salvation(Sammons 235).
Boxing, which has been in existence and evolved from other forms of fighting longer than this country has been established, is a skill, talent, an ambition, and for most professional fighters, a love. Professional boxing, like virtually any physical recreation, is performed so that there are health risks, yet it is the athletes right to decide their personal levels of danger. Indeed, boxing discloses Americas disposition towards tradition. During the United States brief history, Americans have consistently managed to acquire cultural, social, political, and intellectual institutions from England, leaving no surprise to why the modern controversial sport of boxing, or prizefighting, traveled over sea to America. This high-demanding sporting event definitely must be one of the ultimate exceptions of our time. The 1820s and 1830s were marked by increased urbanization and industrialization, which stimulated a need for new and accessible diversions.
The mood of society at large was captured in Beyond the Ring with this classic line, Men, women, and children who cannot live on gravity alone, need something to satisfy their lighter moods and hours(4). Leisures and, more importantly, boxings opponents lost further ground as the giant cities attracted more and more immigrants who were unfamiliar to limitations upon amusements and games. As Jeffrey Sammons so concisely explains, It is because of, rather than despite, its contradictions that boxing has survived(236). While a number of health and medical advocates have attempted to reform and/or abolish the sport since the early nineteen eighties because of brutality and death, these adversaries have also served as proof of manhood. The problem has slowly evolved from a national to an international conflict.
An increased death and brain damage rate triggered this worthless action towards the removal of professional boxing. This was just temporary. Slight changes within league rules, such as weight class regulations and softening of boxing gloves, soon decreased the already low health-damaging rates back to legal standards. Anybody who believes that there should be a complete elimination of the sport really needs to put things in perspective. In terms of numbers, I am almost one-hundred percent certain that the number of deaths caused in other sports is much higher.
Consider the high-intensity and extremely tragic catastrophes seen in motor sports alone. Not to mention air sports, mountain and rock climbing, and the handful of ball games. The intervention of our own personal risk and danger is our own liberty. On the other hand, I certainly agree we have to prevent people from taking risks that they are ignorant about.
There are numerous other areas where consenting adults take risks and harm each other, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. Where are the people arguing for their criminalization? In much similarity to other illegal industries such as hardcore pornography and the never ending war on drug dealing and drug use, a ban on boxing would force it to go underground, making it more dangerous, much like the new hit blockbuster movie, Fight Club, a classic display of our true human instincts. Boxing is not so much a sport, not merely a game as it is, like drama itself, a way of life(Oates & Halpern, 259). Besides, the demand for professional boxing in the Unites States is up there with the other sport elites. The boxing industry is one of the highest revenue making sports that exists today. What would a ban do to the tourist industry for urban cities like Las Vegas or Atlantic City? Some of the greatest athletes this planet has seen in the twentieth century have come from the sport of boxing.
Lets just think of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Robinson. There can be little doubt that the desire for monetary gain, fame, and enhanced social status have motivated many a young man to enter the prizefightnig ring. It has been a sterotype that all prizefighters have low socioeconomic backround and little education, or unuseful work skills. I believe that if I had the stereotypical low social status and the talent, skill, and ambition of a prizefighter, of course I would walk through the door that is shedding a dim yet only light of possible success.
Despite the feasibility of fame and wealth, middle and upper class men dont mind professional baseball and football, but to be labeled a prizefighter is something they cant quite swallow(237). In opposition to my current beliefs, Elliot J. Gorn, the author of The Manly Art, believes that boxers are victims of racial and class discrimination, that the ring encourages voilence, and that pugilism appeals to all that is barbarous in man(11). In Conclusion, a ban on boxing is not only illogical but impossible! In my mind, if you want to minimize the number of actual life-long injuries related to sports, you would be better off coming up with elaborated rules for motor sports or rock climbing. Who wants to terminate a sport that has been entertaining the world for centuries? How could medical ethics eliminate a sport which participates in the Olympics? Yes, boxing may be risky but so is life.
Sports and Games.
