Land of Oz

Boxing

Or hockey without the skates... This is what set this off, "The New York State Athletic Commission suspended the 42-year-old Holyfield's boxing license because of his 'diminished skills and poor performance...'" His record is 2-5-2 since 1999. It goes on to say that after medical test Evander doesn't show any signs of brain damage or other medical problems

Whenever you have a sport where brain damage isn't unusual, I think you need to look into this as a sport. Boxing seems to be one of the very few sports where physically damaging your opponent is the desired outcome. Yes, I know there's points and all that, but the real goal is knocking out your opponent. Except for those aberrant events like Ultimate Fighting or whatever, the vast majority of martial arts require your opponent to be subdued, not beaten to a pulp.

Compare this to American football - which is probably one of the more violent sports around. A quarterback wearing full pads gets hit in the head (albeit by a 6 foot 6 inch, 350 pound mound of charging muscle) and ends up with a career ending concussion. A boxer takes several dozen hits to the head - unprotected by any helmet or pads - by a 200 pound mass of muscle (or flab in local fights) and comes back to fight over and over again. A twenty-year old can probably recover from hits like this - for awhile. A forty-year old isn't going to.

It is so sad to see some forty-year old fighter making a "comeback." Go back, I'd say. It's really unlikely you're going to win. And it's really likely you're going to do more permanent damage to yourself. Sure, you may end up like George Foreman hawking everything under the sun, but you're more likely to end up like Ali - punch drunk and old before your days. You have ugly sights like Tyson and Hollyfield trading their name with little hope of any glory for a few minutes of pummeling in the ring by some young up and comer.

And as far as fighting being part of hockey - bullshit! Yes, violence is part of that game - as it is in American football. However, throwing a punch in football is probably going to get you thrown out of the game and fined - in hockey, it means a few seconds in a penalty box and highlight films on the night's news. You could end hockey violence in a couple of weeks worth of games, by kicking out for a game, then a season, anyone who throws a punch - first or followup. In a very few games, I'm sure the players would get the point and could practice skating and scoring points not brawling and mayhem.

2fers: Boxing 1 and Boxing 2