By blood sports I mean, will they be seen by future generations akin to how we see Roman gladiatorial games, or how most civilised people today see sports that involve cruelty to animals.
By years to come, well, define that however you want - ten years, fifty, one hundred.
I’m aware that there are plenty of people who maintain this view today, however boxing and other combat sports (MMA, amateur wrestling and what have you) are perfectly legal (in most countries) and in the popular conciousness there’s a big gap between professional bouts and pointless cruelty.
However, the wiki article on boxing cites that over 200 boxers have died in the ring since 1980, many more left with horrific injuries. Many medical associations call for its banning.
Of course, injury in sport is nothing new - American Football also has a reputation for health issues and fatalities. Ditto rugby, or equestrian sports - take your pick of sports where injury or death is a risk. However, the aim there isn’t to injure your opponent, something that can’t be said for boxing.
Where do I stand? Personally I think it would be a mistake to outlaw boxing. Rules, regulations and ringside medics in a bout between consenting adults who know the inherent risks is obviously preferable to driving it into illegal underground fights. That said, I think it is in decline, it definitely doesn’t have the attention it had in the past. MMA seems to be all the rage these days, although while enjoying a safer reputation it has its own issues. Still, I think some kind of combat sports - however regulated and whatever restrictions - will endure for many years to come. It’s too ingrained in culture and the psyche. Some people want to fight, some people want to watch it - whether as a show of undeniable athletic skill or to sate a simple bloodlust. As long as that exists, supply and demand answers it for me.
I don’t follow sports, by and large, so as far as that goes I have no dog in the fight. But I doubt that in a decade or a century or even a millennium humanity will have given up on sports that involve a risk of injury. Boxing or some type of fighting sport will most likely always be with us, but it will continue to be refined to minimize the chance of death, without every eliminating it. Look at what boxing was 50 years ago, or a hundred years ago and you can see refinements of the rules that have mitigated at least some of the deaths and injuries, if for nothing else than to keep the boxers able to fight again and thus bring in more money in the future. The same goes for American football…the equipment and the rules continue to be refined and will probably continue into the future.
I seriously doubt that the desire for combat type sports will ever leave the human race…we’ll just invent new ones as the old ones fall out of favor. JMHO, and said from a guy who doesn’t really enjoy watching ANY sports on TV or even live.
Quite the reverse. We’re going to progressivily desensitize to violence until we have The Real American Gladiators show/league (basically UFC with edged weapons added).
Tonight!
In Madison Square Garden!
For a purse of $500,000!
15 al-Qaeda enemy combatants versus the East LA Crips!
Tonight’s weapon of choice: Chainsaws!
To ensure a vigorous contest, all survivors of the losing team will be crucified!
Can it? Boxing is a test of endurance and skill. The bloody puffy faced 12 round slugfests really only happen in Rocky movies. If someone fails to defend himself and is setting himself up for injury, the ref will stop the match.
Not to say that there’s not people who will condemn it as violent, but it’s usually done by people who don’t understand the sport.
I’m by no means an expert and I don’t deny the endurance and skill aspects at all, but the object in all sports is to prevail, in the case of boxing over a single opponent. Ways to prevail include knocking your opponent out or getting him on the canvass for over ten seconds or a TKO. The best way to accomplish this is clearly to inflict injuries upon your opponent so that they are physically unable to continue, or even stand. Not to deny judge’s decisions, of course - but if you didn’t land a punch (an act that has only one purpose) I rather doubt you’d win on that either.
I’ve heard that boxing has actually gotten more dangerous these days, because now, with gloves, they can punch each other in the head without breaking their knuckles.
Meh, bear-baiting and cock fighting is barbaric because the animals involved are forced into it. If two thugs want to punch eachother for my amusement they can have at it, I have no qualms about their poor career choice.
I think as we begin to understand more about how these sports relate to long- and short-term brain injury, we’ll eventually see some changes along the lines of the OP.
I see what you’re saying. But, in modern boxing scenarios the two opponents should be pretty evenly matched. There should be very few punches that land without defense or deflection. I realize that the intent of a punch is to knock a guy out, but the contest is more about who can keep their composure and be able to land punches and defend themselves the longest.
In a game of chess, every move is an act that has only one purpose. But you can only declare checkmate once.
The long term dangers of football and boxing have been known for a very long time. New studies shine more light on it and reveal more grisly details but I don’t see why fans would care much. If anything, attempts to water it down are usually met with cries of the newer generations being a bunch of pussies and trying to water down the manly sports (whether the new generation is today or 100 years ago).
YES. Shhh. It’ll happen. In both sports you mention. Over time, it’s impossible to not understand the dangers of concussions. The center for Notre Dame was let go…in college; for head injuries to pursue other sports…the obvious right thing for ND to do, but, i mean…it’s only college.
I think in my lifetime football will be changed so dramatically as to resemble touch football due to injury prevention…and I think Steelers vs. Ravens is best game ever; so that’s where i come from. But it’s impossible not to acknowledge reality.
That’s true, and I’m not for a second trying to say that violence and injury are all that boxing is about. On the same note however, you can’t deny that these are intrinsic parts of the sport.
It’s impossible to predict what will seem barbaric to generations vastly removed from our own. Sometimes very superficial and meaningless things will be viewed as barbaric. For example the Romans viewed beards as somewhat barbaric because in Roman society regularly going to the barber and being shaved was a major part of life (especially for the upper classes) so to go around bearded was extremely “non-Roman.”
The Ancient Greeks on the other hand viewed beards as an essential part of being a man, and cultures that shaved were looked upon with suspicion in that regard by the Greeks.
So societies can view things as barbaric that, objectively, are just superficial.
However, something like the Roman gladiatorial games is seen as barbaric for two big reasons. The first is that most of the participants were compelled to participate by force, the proper gladiators trained in a ludus were usually quasi-willing participants if they had been doing it for awhile, but even they were slaves with no choice to quit if they so desired. Secondly the crowd was titillated by this human slaughter being committed before them, often times to “warm up” the crowd some totally defenseless criminals would be executed en masse by trained gladiators, to the roaring approval of the crowd.
I think any sort of modern combat sport will be viewed very differently because both participants are not only willing, but very enthusiastic participants who love what they are doing, and the crowds tend to be more interested in seeing a well fought fight with a clear victor as opposed to a vicious beating in which someone is left bloody and permanently injured.
Medically I think boxing and football as they are done now are serious problems and if I had children I don’t know that I’d let them participate in either sport. I played football myself in High School and never suffered any serious injury, but as more and more studies have come out showing the life long consequences of concussions I just think the risks involved make it a poor choice of sport for someone’s children. I am a firm advocate of the “you can’t bubble wrap them” school of thought, but you also don’t want to have your 15 year old hang gliding over an active volcano, either. For me a sport like wrestling or baseball, which have some risks associated with them would be okay, but football and boxing I think cross the threshold for me.
I played football too and I didn’t suffer any serious long term injuries. However, I wonder if there is any difference between the high school player without aspirations of playing in college and those of us who knew we weren’t going to play college ball. I didn’t play for all four years, I switched to wrestling. Many high school baseball teams now have rules limiting the amount of time a kid can pitch. Many of them were ruining their arms even at such a young age.
True, I can’t deny that. I believe that a big draw to a boxing match is the possibility that someone will get knocked out. Which is a big reason Tyson was such a popular boxer - he had a tendency to do just that.
However, with MMA fights becoming more and more popular, it would seem that the trend is going toward more violent contests.
Y’know, that’s sort of an interesting sub-question: is grappling someone for the win more violent than punching them unconscious? (You can of course still do the latter in MMA, but the former is an option; is it a worse or better option?)
For all this talk about how it’s obvious that Roman games were barbaric and how far we’ve evolved morally does anyone doubt that modern day gladiatorial games would be wildly popular? Imagine Obama giving the thumbs up or down. Or hell, everyone could send a vote on their phone. Everyone would be rooting for their favorite gladiator. Everyone at the office would talk about it. It’d be television platinum. In the current economic climate I bet the most popular division would be the white collar crooks.
