Argument Against a Ban on Boxing

Argument Against a Ban on Boxing

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 America’s 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). Leisure’s and, more

importantly, boxing’s 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, r...

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...nd upper class men “don’t mind professional baseball and

football, but to be labeled a ‘prizefighter’ is something they can’t 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.