Should boxing be banned?

[Volenta]

I read an interesting case about why the sport boxing should be banned, and love to hear your views on it.

Boxing is a sport that causes a lot of damage to the participants, especially to the brain. Some things that happen to boxers: speech disorder, eyes moving back and forth, epileptic attack, disturbed consciousness or unconsciousness at a knock-down/-out, coma and death. It seems that 40-80% of the professionals has acquired brain injury. Also diseases like parkinson's disease are acquired from time to time. Should the government protect these people from doing this onto themselves? Practices like voluntary dueling until one dies are also forbidden. And I assume vegans are generally apposed to dog fighting; just like dogs, boxers are stirred up and aren't always fully in control of themselves.

You could also have doubts about the influence it has on children watching these fights. But I'm not really sure about the evidence that seeing aggression, makes the child more aggressive. In the short term it probably does, but whether it has effects in the long term, I'm not so sure.

I'm never really a fan of banning things, but I have yet to hear a strong case against it.

[Viktorius_the_Third]

First of: im pacifist.
but i would not bann it! why? they want to do it! its their job. its like: bann the army! you cannot bann something that people want to do! thats why drugs should be legal but you should be judged if you do something wrong!
you dont have to watch it! and if boxing would be forbidden... they would go to mma or whatever fighting!
also: you want the stupid people entertained dont you? its like with the world cup! here in germany there is a massive hype about it! every two years (world and euro cup) germanys iq drops about 20 points! in this time our politicians can use this iq drop to get through every stupid law they want!
if you would bann boxing all those stupid violence loving guys would be out there.
about the violence causing in the viewer... i think its a bit like videogames... people who are aggresive can get rid of them watching it, while people who are generally peaceful will not turn violent because of this!
Im exaggerating of cause and not everyone who is watching boxing loves violence, but most of them do.
If you bann boxing you have to bann every selfdamaging thing. as long as they do it via their free will... why bann it?

[Volenta]

First of: im pacifist.
but i would not bann it! why? they want to do it! its their job. its like: bann the army! you cannot bann something that people want to do! thats why drugs should be legal but you should be judged if you do something wrong!

So you think that legalizing every drug—including the real heavy ones—is okay? And the dualing to death should also be made legal again? Not using your seatbelt in the car? You don't think the goverment should project people from damaging their own lives? Punishment is only a way to prevent people from doing it—for their own sake.

It's not that I necessarily think your opinion is wrong, but you should be consistent or explain why it's a different in this instance.

if you would bann boxing all those stupid violence loving guys would be out there.

Not sure what you mean here. Could you clarify this bit? Do you mean people aren't going to accept the ban? It is actually banned in some countries, like Norway, but I'm not sure what the people there think about it.

If you bann boxing you have to bann every selfdamaging thing. as long as they do it via their free will... why bann it?

Well, you could eventually draw a line, where you think it is justifiable to let the people themselves make the choice. But because the enormous amount of damage it inflicts (empirically), it's goes far beyond the damage most other legal practices (potentially) inflict.

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A little bit of clarification: I'm talking specifically about the sports that can cause serious brain damage. There are also fighting sports (or versions of boxing, I don't know) that can't cause this damage because it's not allowed to hit the head (judo for example).

[Twizelby]

about the violence causing in the viewer... i think its a bit like videogames... people who are aggresive can get rid of them watching it, while people who are generally peaceful will not turn violent because of this!
Im exaggerating of cause and not everyone who is watching boxing loves violence, but most of them do.
If you bann boxing you have to bann every selfdamaging thing. as long as they do it via their free will... why bann it?

I used to box when I was in highschool. I have never been in a street fight and not a lot of the boxers were aggressive outside the ring. The spectators are usually the ones calling for blood. Everyone in my ring would get along after a fight even if you lost and would congratulate the other on a well fought match. To me, my only interest in boxing was how challenging it was and the adrenaline rush of knowing that you are probably going to take a few blows. I'm not sure how much of trash talk before a match in professional boxing is real and not just them trying to amp up the crowd. But no I don't think it should be banned but I do think contracts should be made to take care of medical expenses at a certain level. obviously small gyms couldn't do it but for professionals it seems like they should have some bargaining rights.

[TheVeganAtheist]

i would not be in favour of banning it. I actually quite like boxing and MMA. Fighters are adults and should have every right to engage in a sport that they choose, if everyone involved is willing and gives consent. If there are consequences involved in a sport, then they should be aware of them, and be willing to accept the risk.

[Neptual]

If it were to be banned then I would vote for football to be banned. Brain damage and worse can be acquired through it so why not vote to ban that? If boxing gets banned then all sports should be banned because each have the possibility for you to get major injuries (with the exception of golf).

[Viktorius_the_Third]

@Volenta:

yes... as you may already know my views are a little extreme sometimes... but yes! i think every human (if not mentally ill!) should have the right to do with their bodies as they please! suicide? your life! boxing? your body! driving a car (as you may know there are a lot more people beeing dmged by driving a car than by boxing... should we ban it too?) Your risk!

And yes i think also the superheavy ones... as long as it is garantueed that they can not harm others! (like theyy will get into a special room where they cant get out or something! would boost the economy xDDD

[Volenta]

If it were to be banned then I would vote for football to be banned. Brain damage and worse can be acquired through it so why not vote to ban that? If boxing gets banned then all sports should be banned because each have the possibility for you to get major injuries (with the exception of golf).

Well, this is really a slippery slope. Yes, other sports have dangers too, but they don't have this high percentage of brain injuries. You can't recover from brain damage (at the moment), it remains damaged. Other physical parts of the body can recover and be fixed. That's the major difference.

I'm not sure about the dangers of football. I don't think it comes even near the percentage of brain injuries acquired by boxing. But you can prove me wrong.

as you may know there are a lot more people beeing dmged by driving a car than by boxing... should we ban it too?)

Well, the damage is higher in absolute numbers, not in percentages. And I'm definitely in favor of making it more secure (I'm happy to see self-driving cars coming up).

[Neptual]

If it were to be banned then I would vote for football to be banned. Brain damage and worse can be acquired through it so why not vote to ban that? If boxing gets banned then all sports should be banned because each have the possibility for you to get major injuries (with the exception of golf).

Well, this is really a slippery slope. Yes, other sports have dangers too, but they don't have this high percentage of brain injuries. You can't recover from brain damage (at the moment), it remains damaged. Other physical parts of the body can recover and be fixed. That's the major difference.

I'm not sure about the dangers of football. I don't think it comes even near the percentage of brain injuries acquired by boxing. But you can prove me wrong.

This is not a slippery slope. "You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen." No where in my statement did I say that if Boxing where to be banned then eventually every sport should be banned. I said that if boxing were to be banned then all sports should be banned.

Soccer is a far more dangerous sport than boxing and here's why.
1. In boxing if you get injured badly enough then the referee can choose to end the match. In soccer unless you're unable to walk you still have play.
2. Getting a kick to the head several times hurts more than getting punched in the face several times, this does happen.
3. Because you have to continue playing after suffering a injury you're still susceptible to more injuries.

There are such a low number of participants in boxing so of course the injury reports are going to be high. It's like 6 people playing a game 4 people get hurt and the injury report says "More than half of the people that play this game get injured".

[Volenta]

This is not a slippery slope. "You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen." No where in my statement did I say that if Boxing where to be banned then eventually every sport should be banned. I said that if boxing were to be banned then all sports should be banned.

That sounds like playing with words to me. Whether it will eventually happen or at the same time doesn't really matter. If you can make it logically consistent, then it's not a fallacy, so let me respond to your attempt.

Soccer is a far more dangerous sport than boxing and here's why.

So we are actually talking about soccer then, not American football? Fine by me. (I don't know much about American football)

1. In boxing if you get injured badly enough then the referee can choose to end the match. In soccer unless you're unable to walk you still have play.

That's not true. Players aren't forced to continue playing; when injured so badly that they can't continue, they can be replaced with other players or just removed when out of options. Smaller injuries are taken care of during the match, right after it incident happened.

2. Getting a kick to the head several times hurts more than getting punched in the face several times, this does happen.

It's not about short duration pain, it's the lifelong brain damage that is the issue being discussed.

3. Because you have to continue playing after suffering a injury you're still susceptible to more injuries.

See point 1.

There are such a low number of participants in boxing so of course the injury reports are going to be high. It's like 6 people playing a game 4 people get hurt and the injury report says "More than half of the people that play this game get injured".

What's wrong with measuring it that way? It is the percentage/relative numbers that counts.