BOXING SHOULD BE BANNED

BOXING SHOULD BE BANNED

Yes! I am saying that boxing should be banned. The other day, I saw the Olympics boxing event figuring India’s Devendra Singh defeating his Mongolian rival Serdamba Purevdorj. I was very glad that the puny and fragile Indian - it was a light fly weight category of 49 kg - won the fight convincingly. But after watching the event I told myself equally convincingly that boxing should be banned.

Boxing is indeed a fascinating sport. Even women like to watch it. The terrible thing about the latest big boxing news is that for the first time women-boxing has been introduced into Olympics this year, in London 2012! God, this horribly nasty sport which makes animal of men, has been extended to women! Is this the way to achieve gender non-discrimination? The fine, fair sex which we want to keep tantalizingly delicate and vulnerable has been allowed into a rakshas sport of men! The headline-news today is that India’s lady boxer Mary Kom (51kg) began her campaign by beating Poland’s Karolina Michalczuk with a score of 19-14. What a way to go for the fairer sex!

In my young days and more particularly in the 1950s, it was Rocky Marciano, the great American heavy-weight boxer, who greatly captured my imagination. He was the world champion for four years from 1952 to 1956, and unfortunately he died in a small-plane crash later in 1969 at the age of 46 only. The Hindu was the newspaper of Chennai that gave us wonderful world-wide news and I kept pace with Rocky Marciano’s progress. And when I joined the Intermediate Class in 1955, I even enrolled myself for boxing sport although I was thin but I had the height and thank God I did not stick with it.

In the 1960s, it was Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Mohammad Ali, who captured my fancy. There was no TV then and no way of watching any of his matches, but his fascinating boxing career followed from newspaper reports held me spell-bound. He was known for his big height and figure, handsomeness and a big 80 inch reach. He refused to be conscripted for the Viet Nam War for which the American Government carried out a reprisal by having his boxing titles taken away! After contesting his case for several years, he won his fight against his conscription in the Supreme Court.

The 1980s saw Mike Tyson becoming the heavy-weight champion but to me he never looked as winsome and classy as Mohammad Ali. He seemed crude and indeed, many may recollect, he bit off the ear of Evander Holyfield in a bout in 1999! Tyson was notorious for drug habits and was convicted and sentenced for rape, for six years. One of his nicknames was “The Baddest man on the Planet”! I really never cared much for Tyson, known for scintillating knock-out victories, and I began to lose interest in boxing.

And lo and behold, after several years, I watched a bout exhibiting our Devendra Singh in the Olympics the other day. I thought that the sport lends no dignity to man. It involves punching of the other man most particularly on the face. This is a ferocious and animalistic act and it brings out the worst instincts in man. Unless you want to kill an enemy you will not punch his face with ferocity. You can see all the venom and competitive hatred and animosity on the boxer’s face. Of course protective guards are being used by boxers nowadays but there are several instances of boxers getting killed or breaking their noses, and I feel that no sport should directly lead to that. People have died in action playing cricket and football but those are accidents. Even in wrestling, while force is there, the killer instinct of punching the face does not exist. Many countries have abolished even cock-fights, and it is time we abolish the unsightly and cruel sport of boxing.

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