Boxing: Is This Brutality A "Sport"?
Canadian women recently won a gold, a silver, and two bronze medals at the World Womens' Boxing Championships , held in Podolsk, Russia. Mary Spencer, a 20 year old from Windsor, Ontario, took gold in the 66 kg class, and was named the tournament's top boxer. Ariane Fortin of Quebec City won a silver medal in the 57 kg final. Sandra Bizier of Montreal and Katie Dunn of Windsor, Ont., both won bronze.
While I'm happy that these young women were successful doing something they love, I have a hard time celebrating an event that glorifies violence.
This was an amateur boxing tournament, and the rules are more stringent, the level of aggression less obvious, the health and safety of participants much more important to the organizers than in a professional boxing match, but this is still a "sport" that draws on humanity's most primal nature and encourages one of society's basest qualities: bloodlust.
Boxer Leavander Johnson died five days after he was seriously injured in a lightweight title fight in September. He suffered a fatal brain injury during the bout, and never regained consciousness after he slipped into a coma minutes after the referee stopped the fight. His death was the sixth in the ring in Las Vegas since 1994. In the last four months, two boxers have died and two others had severe, debilitating brain injuries.
How long can society condone one person beating another to death in the name of sport? Even those boxers who survive are much more likely to suffer long term negative effects. Conditions such as post-traumatic dementia, dementia pugilistica, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease are far more prevalent in retired boxers than the rest of the population. Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome in 1982, following which his motor functions began a slow decline. Mike Tyson can barely string together a cohesive sentence, although, in all fairness, even before he began his boxing career he was never known as a great orator.
Maybe I'm missing something, but the thought of two healthy human beings beating one another until one gives in, or dies, holds absolutely no allure for me. There is more than enough pain, suffering and bloodshed in day-to-day life, watching sanctioned matches dedicated to pain and domination seems obscene.
Rest in peace, Leavander Johnson.
While I'm happy that these young women were successful doing something they love, I have a hard time celebrating an event that glorifies violence.
This was an amateur boxing tournament, and the rules are more stringent, the level of aggression less obvious, the health and safety of participants much more important to the organizers than in a professional boxing match, but this is still a "sport" that draws on humanity's most primal nature and encourages one of society's basest qualities: bloodlust.
Boxer Leavander Johnson died five days after he was seriously injured in a lightweight title fight in September. He suffered a fatal brain injury during the bout, and never regained consciousness after he slipped into a coma minutes after the referee stopped the fight. His death was the sixth in the ring in Las Vegas since 1994. In the last four months, two boxers have died and two others had severe, debilitating brain injuries.
How long can society condone one person beating another to death in the name of sport? Even those boxers who survive are much more likely to suffer long term negative effects. Conditions such as post-traumatic dementia, dementia pugilistica, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease are far more prevalent in retired boxers than the rest of the population. Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome in 1982, following which his motor functions began a slow decline. Mike Tyson can barely string together a cohesive sentence, although, in all fairness, even before he began his boxing career he was never known as a great orator.
Maybe I'm missing something, but the thought of two healthy human beings beating one another until one gives in, or dies, holds absolutely no allure for me. There is more than enough pain, suffering and bloodshed in day-to-day life, watching sanctioned matches dedicated to pain and domination seems obscene.
Rest in peace, Leavander Johnson.
posted by Alphamutt at 6:52 PM
1 Comments:
aargh... you're really getting spammed a lot on this blog, eh? blogspam, the next frontier!
I find boxing hard to watch, myself. At least it's up front about the purpose of the sport, unlike hockey, where the fighting is unofficially part of the sport.
Another thing that bugs me is martial arts that have been turned into sports. The main purpose of a martial art is self-defense, isn't it? Training to hit but not maim or kill your opponent defeats this purpose.
I've spent a few years training in martial arts & I chose a style that has no tournaments or competitions of any kind. I'm not interested in beating anybody up for fun; I just want to be able to defend myself when & if my own safety is threatened.
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