How do you defend boxing against people who think it should be banned?

I too can see where they're coming from, even though I don't agree. Purely because when I watch MMA and see a "ground and pound" I cringe sometimes and think that isn't a sport.

Though I'm sure some MMA guys could explain the techniques etc. behind it, I don't.

Boxing has far more rules and protection for the fighters.

 

The real answer is that they have a point.

But if you really want a reasonable response, say something like this:

Lots of jobs are dangerous. Coal miners routinely suffer for years from chronic lung disease, and then die early. Alaskan crab fishermen have an incredibly high death rate. Aging football players are known to have more physical & mental problems than boxers. Workers in PVC factories have a very high death rate from liver cancer. etc etc etc....

Some people take dangerous jobs because it's the only way they can survive. Others take them because the rewards are worth the risk. None of these people are hurting anyone else but themselves.

Should we ban coal, PVC, football, and Alaskan King Crab? And then what's next? Ban smoking, alcohol, cell phones in the car (actually that's a good idea) etc?
Maybe we should also ban sex, since it spreads so many terrible diseases?

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I guarantee you, this will shut them up.

 

Yes you can. We should live in a country where people can die for their honor, pride, or whatever they believe in as long as it's with consent of the other person willing to die for the same things.

 

I would explain to them that combat sports are the oldest, purest, and most natural forms of sport in the world, that everyone taking part knows the risks and accepts them, and that they don't have the right to destroy thousands of years of noble tradition. And if that didn't work I would give them the left hook.

 

boxing saves lives!!! it's the nobelist of all sports. it combines the complexity of chess and a physical/mental test on the highest of levels. it's not two guys brutally beating each other senseless...and if that's what u see then u are not truly watching. the moves executed in a boxing match can be as graceful as the moves performed by a ballerina or as intense as a lion closing in on it's prey. each combatant is using intelligence thought only possible by computers when they are calculating distance, timing, balance and angles all in milli-seconds incorporating combinations with counter attacks and defensive moves all sewn together seamlessly with ebb and flow like nothing else in this world. boxing is one of the highest forms of adversity...and adversity reveals true character. it's combatants bare their souls to the world for our entertainment. there is nothing savage about that. there is nothing more noble.

boxing is part art...part science....and is the best sport on the planet period.

 

More rules doesn't mean its safer.

In fact Boxing is more dangerous than MMA because you are limited to striking with your fists only without any submissions & you get the 10 count to get up and keep fighting. If you get in a submission you just tap but if you are constantly hit in the head you get brain damage or die.

There have been far fewer deaths in MMA since it got popular though there are also a lot less MMA fights worldwide than Boxing. Still I am sure that if someone does the per capita comparisons, MMA would come out safer.

 

Boxing is beautiful. It's no different than other martial arts or other sports. Violent like Rugby or American Football. But actually all sports have risk for serious injury. A few years ago a baseball coach was killed when hit with a ball in the chest. If that had been boxing,they would be calling for the ban now.
Boxing is great for fitness,self defense,hobby,sport etc
Especially in this violent world full of crazy people,I would want my friends and family to be able to defend themselves out on the street.
Why does boxing get a bad rap and hundreds of kids are dropped off for after school Karate every day? Karate is a martial art and also has competitions. Same thing!
Boxing for some reason is seen as worse or more violent.
The truth is,boxing is beautiful and most people in boxing are good folks. More people die driving every day than they do boxing.

 

Oh and another thing,these people wouldn't want to ban boxing if a boxer saved their ass on the street one day from a robbery or a ****-this stuff has happened.
Ban boxing but keep the guns? That doesn't make sense. I appreciate and respect a gun but I couldn't kill anyone and I wont carry a gun. I can however smash someone in the jaw and he and I can continue on with our lives (when he wakes up from the Coma I sent him to)

I'd rather know how to fight than have to carry a gun.

 

It's the sport of kings. I hear people say "the object of boxing is to hurt someone" but that is not true. The object of boxing as a sport,is to win.
It's a sport and martial art and also a way of fitness. All good things.

 

You shouldn't understand where they are coming from because all the people who are against boxing have never had a use for it and also never understood it in the first place. I know many kids who got into boxing so they weren't beaten unmercifully at school. And the sport of boxing is no worse than American football,rugby or NASCAR.

 

I personally haven't met anyone that wanted boxing to be banned. If I did, I would just ignore them and go away. The mere smell of their estrogen overloaded body would offend my presence.

 

Sad but true. It's usually some Woman who wants to ban it. Laila Ali might feel differently.

 

Boxing is a very old classic sport of humans that will never die.

 

bump

 

I have had people say "how can you like a violent sport like boxing" after I say I am into boxing. My answer always is that boxing gives people a chance for success and it isn't about violence, it is a science on how to hit and not get hit. People who don't love boxing do not understand the science of it, and the fact that it helps so many people enjoy life.