No boxer tries to win
on points. Everyone goes for the haymaker. As far as I’m aware this is the only
sport where the deliberate intention is to cause potentially fatal brain damage
to your opponent - because that’s what a
knock-out can do.
Twenty five years ago I read an article in a local newspaper
where Nicky Piper’s wife, when asked about her opinion of the dangers of her husband’s
profession (he was a well-regarded middleweight boxer at the time) said that “it’s
safer than crossing the road”. She may have been joking, but in those pre
internet or social media days, that was the only occasions I’ve ever felt the
need to write to a newspaper with a strongly worded letter. To vent my spleen!
Recently the Scottish boxer Mike Towell died following a
bout and of course, those who know far
more about boxing than me will be aware of the probably countless other boxers
who have been killed either in the ring, following bouts, or who over the years
have succumbed to boxing related brain damage injuries.
Every time there is an immediate tragedy, when someone
actually dies, proponents of boxing trot out the old argument that it was only an
accident and that more people are seriously injured or killed falling off
horses. That may well be true. The counter argument is of course, that they are
truly accidents. Horses don’t set out with the deliberate intention of causing
potentially fatal injuries to their riders, whereas boxers do.
In an interview before his last fight I heard David Haye say
that he hoped his opponent would be asleep by the second round. Asleep? What he
really meant was that he hoped that he would have punched his opponent so hard
in the face and around his head, that he would cause (hopefully temporary)
brain damage by rendering the other person unconscious, whereby he would need immediate
and complex medical attention, which again hopefully, would allow him to get up
and walk out of the ring a few minutes later. No harm done.
There are many boxers who appear to survive each bout and
indeed their careers bright eyed and lucid. There are many more who shuffle about
, slurring their speech and suffering all sorts of brain damage related behavioural
issues later on in life when they’re out of the public eye. So if it doesn’t get
you immediately, it probably will later on. There are countless medical articles
which attest to the damage caused by the cumulative effect of repeated blows to
the head and yet, even after a severe beating, you’ll hear the management say
that “he’ll be back after a good rest”.
I can see no justification for continuing with this sport. None
of the freedom of choice or “I’d have slipped into crime of I hadn’t done it”
(Frank Bruno) arguments really stand up to scrutiny. Lots of people do lots of
other things to earn a living.
Another pro boxing argument is that if it were banned it
would simply continue ‘underground’ in an even more dangerous, unregulated
form. I’m sure that’s true. Unlicensed boxing has been around for years. But
the point is that if boxing became illegal, parents wouldn’t be able to send their
children to boxing clubs, it wouldn’t be on mainstream television, or at the Olympics.
Those wishing to fight underground would continue to do so, but in time the
supply of new fodder would dry up.
The most vociferous proponents tend to be those that make
the most money from it. Managers puffing on cigars telling everyone that ‘it’s
not that dangerous really’ and ‘he knew what he was getting into’ – but then it’s
not them being punched into oblivion is it?
Some boxers undoubtedly make millions from it and get away
with it. The vast majority don’t. I had to google the name of the Scottish
boxer, because I couldn’t remember it, and yet I know that the boxing
fraternity had to organise a whip-round to help his partner and child. I guess
at least the rich ones make enough to look after their own medical care later
on in life.
The next time you see on your television, or in real life at
an event, a boxer killed or seriously injured, or simply knocked nearly senseless
so that he loses control of his faculties just remember that it wasn’t an
accident and ask yourself whether the world really needs a sport like this and whether
you’d happily let your children make that career choice?
Further reading
Comments
Post a Comment