Is Boxing worth it?

Boxing is not worth it if it somehow makes you real fat later? No, I'm just kidding with you but in a way it's like anything, to me. You can do hundreds of jobs that there's a toll you pay with yourself- mind or body or both- but you also get the job and nothing isn't a risk/reward assessment. Nothing. You make those assessment every day. Driving, breathing, whatever. Whether it's worth it for someone who's a ham and egger without many physical gifts and whether it's worth it for someone with other-worldly athletic talent like Lomachenko or Whitaker, it's always a different assessment. Some of the guys who partied hard with their money and died young, if they hadn't used their boxing talent, they were just going to die young without a lot of the fun times anyway, I assume.

In the multiverse, there's possibly no verse with a 100-year-old Tommy Morrison or Johnny Tapia who die peacefully in their sleep, naturally wearing out with no cognitive issues or chronic illnesses. They may've indirectly suffered from a crazy life that was afforded and enabled by their careers, but were they not going to have a crazy life where they may've just gone to prison and gotten shanked to death or died after a barfight turned worse than fists or a random DUI car accident or whatever the flip?

I'm reminded of the really great fighters who suffered afterward, some saying it was directly form boxing, others saying there's little way to be certain of that and I think of Ali cautioning before he got old, old, that no one should EVER dare feel sorry for him, because he got to be GREAT. Or something to that effect. And for fighters with that type of makeup, I think that becomes the sensible risk/reward assessment. If you can be truly great at something...it's worth a lot of pain on the back end. And that's not a turn of phrase, like an adult film title, I just mean in your later years after fighting. You know what I meant.

Incidentally, I wasn't aware of anything different with BHOP or Pac, but I'm way out of the loop, really. Anyone have examples that illustrate this that I don't have to go find?

 

Debatable - that or the coping strategy of an admirable man of strong character, who thought nothing of it at the time and yet afterwards would do it all again.

Either way - it's an individual thing.

 

I don't disagree that it's debatable or individual.

 

Don’t agree with that tbh, and never heard of it.

in amateurs it was harder to knock guys out anyway.
Different type of gloves, more padding and the pace/scoring of the fight is generally suited to speed and not setting traps and timing etc

 

I think everyone should be in some fights and a boxing gym is a great way to accomplish that. Many posters on this very forum could benefit from some actual combat.

 

Unless you're a pro making serious dough there's no reason to hard spar with more experienced fighters. If you've got a regular job or family to take care of it's just detrimental.

Light sparring and practicing technique is the way to go.

 

Aids medication AKA The Fauci Effect.

 

Fist fighting is a natural thing, The Marquis of Queensberry Rules is not. Is it worth it for the boxers themselves? Depends on their circumstances. From a pure head injury perspective of course not.

 

It's better to spar hard with experienced fighters. Guys who have never sparred get in there think it's a fight, and then it is. None of this is a bad thing, within reason. Brain damage is a complicated thing.

 

Yeah, the ones he stopped taking.

 

Well, I'll be!

 

Just thinking about them made him drop dead.

 

Magic Johnson was a big fan of the Duke.

 

Better off going for it if you’re good enough. Train for 4 months a year, fight for a maximum of 36 minutes. I know most can’t make enough to not have a proper job for the rest of their life but let’s be real, it’s worth a shot because for the vast majority that way of life is ****ing awful. I know which way of life is the most natural and fulfilling out of the two.

My son is 13 and just doing his skills bouts. Looks good to be fair. Wouldn’t want him pro unless he’s been a top amateur and the likes of Eddie Hearn is going to make him a fortune without taking a punch in 15-20 fights. He is top of the class in everything though, can be whatever he wants. For some people it’s better than 50 years cleaning toilets. Many jobs will **** your body up to no end anyway. May aswell do something worth while in the mean time.


Have a mate who’s starting going on the road now. 3 years, he will quit, he’ll have another, nicer house and renting out his old one. I reckon he can get over a grand a month for his one he’s in now which will pay half the mortgage on his new nice one on top of the other one. In another ten years the old ones paid off and the world is his oyster then.


Suppose you just have to have your head screwed on and/or have people to tell you to pack it in if need be.

 

That's a good point. In regular life the bones of the hands are much more brittle than the skull. Without wraps and gloves you don't want to swing shots full power at a skull, in gloves you can technically do that 300 times.