Spousal Abuse And Boxers...

Well, no one ever said boxing developed relationship skills. (And if they did they were bullshitting)

Each individual is different, so I dont think it's right to make a broad generalisation about all wife-beating boxers. Let their shrinks deal with that.

 

This is but one of many black eyes for boxing. Guys like Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake Lamotta, Jack Johnson, and Mike Tyson ( Never hear of Marvin Hagler or Diego Corrales beating up women ) are not average Joe's hitting much weaker women, they are among the best fighters in the world. This neither ethically honorable or remotely fair. In fact, it is very cowardly if you ask me. Tyson and Johnson in particular were despicable.

I do not know why they do it. The only explanation is they have a some criminal like mentalities in them that make them think beating up women is acceptable.

 

Might be the sort of man who is drawn to the sport in the first place.

Boxers as a rule don't fit into traditional societal niches very well.

 

A couple of factors.

A. People who make good boxers are often not verry nice people by definition.

B. A boxer is perhaps more likley to respond with a punch say in an argument than most people because it is what he trains to do.

The idea of a world class boxer beating up a women is frankly scary. A boxers hands are potentialy a lethal weapon against an ordinary person.

 

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he had legal trouble for beating his pregnant wife.

 

It may be a generalisation, but it's a pretty damn true one. There's a huge amount of boxers that beat up their wives.

Janitor's reasons for it sound right. Also, brain damage causes personality changes and lack of inhibitory factors (compare to being drunk, there is less thinking but more instinctive reaction) which may contribute.

 

Firstly, I was refering to any potential "generalizing" we might do as to WHY they do it. Each individual is different. Some might be sadists, some psychpaths, some may be traumatized from childhood, some might be paranoid, jealous or just plain misogynists. One guy might hit his wife and regret it, another might do it and believe he was being lenient and it's "her own fault". So, finding one answer to fit all men who come under "wife beating boxers" is doomed to failure.

Secondly, I disagree with the idea that boxers have had DISPROPORTIONATE numbers of wife beaters in their ranks. I think woman abuse has been just as widespread among non-boxers. I certainly suspect that slapping women was considered more "normal" in the 40s and 50s, and not as absolutely unaccaptable as we rightly consider it now. Black-and-white movies often portray a hero "heroically" giving the damsel a slap, something that you wouldn't see a movie hero do now, thank god.

But IF it is true that boxers as a group are more prone to wife-beating, I would argue that it would be due to the fact that boxers often come from "rough backgrounds", dysfunctional families, anti-social upbringings, a life of violent or abusive beginnings. Yes, poor kids with a lot of rage often get into boxing. And their rage is often due to things like being brought up around abuse. Boxing doesn't mend all these things.

I dont believe boxing exasperates these tendencies at all (though your point on brain damage is valid), and in fact boxing probably generally lessens tendencies to violence out of the ring, in troubled adolescents at least.
But boxing is no CURE for anti-social tendencies to abuse, either.

That's just my take. (I stress that I am no expert at all on these sociological and psychological issues)

 

Its not just boxers, the risk of abuse is pretty common OVERALL. Joe no body next door is perhaps beating his wife and kids. Hell my dad was not a boxer, and he slap my mother around.

It goes beyond boxing imo. Because Ty Cobb beat his wife, and so did Lamotta?? Its more common than one would think. So dont put the blame on boxing. But on the PERSON. There has been some non women hitting boxers I belive.

Lennex Lewis?? perhaps? Fullmer and Carman? Gene Tunney?

Maybe. I not sure on it. But dont go blaming boxing.

 

It is not unlikely that the Tua fight left him with some permanent damage, personality change and the start of him hearing demons.... however, i do think the seed has always been there, although that is speculation on my part.

 

Well i don't have exact numbers either, but i do find it remarkable that on almost every single boxer, there is a wife beating story. We have one famous boxer in Holland (Regilio Tuur) and he's not known for achieving so much in the ring, but for beating up his wife multiple times. And if in Robinsons day beating the living crap out of your pregant wife, then why is it mentioned so often? Surely they wouldn't bother to mention something that is the most normal thing in the world?