Boxing and MMA

Typical Jen fake news. The truth about boxing's popularity in the UK is VERY different to what you infer. In reality - and i know it must irk you - is that boxing is enjoying a resurgence in the UK. Grass-roots boxing is thriving. Figures released recently by Sport England show that boxing is more popular than ever, with a significant increase in the numbers of people taking part at least once a week. This is matched by an increased interest in professional boxing. Take for example the fight btw Gennady Golovkin against Kell Brook at the O2 arena which sold out in just 11 mins and enjoyed very strong ratings. There was also the Froch v Groves fight that was watched by 80,000 at Wembley in 2014. Look also at the interest in the FM v CM fight.

Sky Sports heavily promotes boxing and it is one of it's biggest draw cards. Meanwhile BoxNation continues to grow. The reality is that spectators at fights and those watching on Tv are at record numbers.

You obviously have NO idea why people get into boxing and why they choose to step into the ring. In the past I have fought in boxing and kick boxing bouts. No one made me do it. It was my choice. Many thousands of blokes regularly box in-front of small crowds earning little or no money. They aren't in it for fame and fortune, and they would box even if no one watched at all.

When you join a boxing gym it becomes your home, the people around you are like your extended family. For many kids a boxing gym is the first place where they really feel loved and appreciated. Boxing teaches discipline and resilience. It teaches control and promotes self respect, and gives a sense of purpose. It teaches you that the physical and emotional parts of yourself are not independent of each other and that you have the capacity to control and direct that energy. It brings all of this to bear because it forces you to confront the limitations of your body, but also to recognise its great potential for resistance. Boxing also teaches and rewards strategy, patience and concentration. These are all positive attributes and lessons that can be transferred into the world beyond the ring.

The reality is that a great many a kid has been saved from a life of crime by boxing. Boxing gives them the attributes mentioned above and it gives them a controlled environment to manage feelings of frustration and anger. To quote boxing great George Foreman "Boxing makes kids less violent, because it teaches them how to control their emotions, their anger and their fear."

When you step into the ring you have no where to hide. It's just you against your opponent. And yes you may well get hurt, suffer pain and be injured. But the risk of these things happening develops fortitude and commitment, it demands guts and a high level of skill and conditioning. Boxing asks you to face and control your fears and to overcome them. People who have never boxed or fought in MMA cant understand these things. But fighters do and it's what attracts them to the sport. For few sports test ones character like boxing (and MMA). In addition to this there is a sense of brotherhood among most boxers. A sense of respect for your opponents that transcends most sports.

In truth the aim of boxing is not to harm but to develop courage, strength, community, and self-mastery. All things that seem to be generally lacking in our modern world.

Well, I'll agree with you on one thing at least. I really do have absolutely no idea at all why men step into a boxing ring. I've never felt any inclination to cause harm or suffering to another human being and don't pretend to understand why anybody would.

And before we go any further, I'll acknowledge that in the modern era, women box too. In Rio last year Nicola Adams (GBR) became the first woman to successfully defend an Olympic title. So it isn't just men, it's women too. Fact acknowledged.

You list a number of areas that boxing promotes in a positive light and I acknowledge there is credence in arguing those aspects. But these things are not exclusive to boxing. They can be learned from other sports that don't require two protagonists each trying to seriously injure the other.

Boxing is not the only sport that disadvantaged young people can go to for refuge from an unhappy or lonely life, or who live in a broken family. Quite literally, any sport can do that. In fact, any youth organisation, be it the St John's Ambulance Brigade or the Scouts or whatever can also achieve those things. All of these organisations can bring companionship, relief from misery at home and a sense of belonging and self worth to young people.

I came from a very happy, secure and contented family background and as a young girl took dancing cla

Obviously something went wrong with the above message. It's just as well I type long messages out separately and then cut and paste them on to here when I'm happy with the final version. Unfortunately I didn't notice it hadn't come out in full in time to edit so......

Re-posted in full below:


Well, I'll agree with you on one thing at least. I really do have absolutely no idea at all why men step into a boxing ring. I've never felt any inclination to cause harm or suffering to another human being and don't pretend to understand why anybody would.

And before we go any further, I'll acknowledge that in the modern era, women box too. In Rio last year Nicola Adams (GBR) became the first woman to successfully defend an Olympic title. So it isn't just men, it's women too. Fact acknowledged.

You list a number of areas that boxing promotes in a positive light and I acknowledge there is credence in arguing those aspects. But these things are not exclusive to boxing. They can be learned from other sports that don't require two protagonists each trying to seriously injure the other.

Boxing is not the only sport that disadvantaged young people can go to for refuge from an unhappy or lonely life, or who live in a broken family. Quite literally, any sport can do that. In fact, any youth organisation, be it the St John's Ambulance Brigade or the Scouts or whatever can also achieve those things. All of these organisations can bring companionship, relief from misery at home and a sense of belonging and self worth to young people.

I came from a very happy, secure and contented family background and as a young girl took dancing classes, joined the Brownies and St John's Ambulance. I knew of girls in all those groups whose lives weren't as contented and secure as mine and I went out of my way to especially befriend them. I didn't take them into a ring and punch their head in front of adults encouraging me to hit them harder. How you can suggest that doing so will make any deprived, downtrodden, miserable child happier is beyond me.

Those girls who joined our St John's Ambulance group gained all the things you list without being brutalised and in addition, learned more useful, life affirming skills such as being able to respond positively in an emergency situation..... how to give first aid. I would much rather be able to ease suffering than inflict it.

You want a child to get fit..? Teach them discipline..? Send them to ballet classes, mate. The levels of fitness, control and dedication required to achieve high standards in any dancing discipline is waaaaaaayyyyy beyond what boxing teaches.

As for being "saved from a life of crime," oh, for goodness sake. I can almost hear Jimmy Cagney: "If only someone would gimme a chance.." What utter tosh.

Criminality comes from many sources, and one of the major causes is environment. But even then, environment alone doesn't produce ONLY criminals. Many a young man has climbed out of the ghetto by other means than climbing into the ring.

And as for "No place to run, no place to hide", that's no different to being a batsman at the crease, with a fast bowler running in with a new ball and a ring of slip fielders waiting for him to nick it to them. The goalkeeper and the penalty taker in the shoot out have to go eyeball to eyeball with a stadium full of people watching... and there can be only one winner. Holding your nerve in a one-on-one confrontation isn't confined to boxing.

It takes guts to tuck a rugby ball under your arm and run headlong, full tilt towards a pair of burly props who you just know are going to try to throw you forcefully to the ground. I've been there. It hurts when they do it and having them then fall on top of you certainly knocks the wind out of your sails (and other hurts besides when the rest of the pack piles in..!!). But the principle object of that is to gain possession of the ball. They're not trying to kill you.

When the ruck is over you pick yourself up, take a deep breath, scrape the mud out of your eye and rejoin the game. Next time, you might be the one doing the tackling.

All sport is about "finding oneself." Whether you swim or run or kick a football you have to have the character, courage, determination and desire to achieve the highest level you can regardless of personal sacrifice or even physical injury.

Tell me that any footballer who suffers a broken leg, or rugby player with his shoulder dislocated, or even the cricketer who gets banjaxed (that looks like it hurts A LOT ) was ever deterred from playing for the knowledge that such a thing could happen. It's a risk. We take it every time we cross the white line. But we do it just the same. We do it for all the reasons you suggest are exclusive to boxing, but aren't.

I disagree vehemently that people who have never boxed cannot understand the things you list. All sports teach those things in their own way, almost entirely without recourse to the kind of violence that is deliberately intended to cause serious brain injury.

But there is one thing that boxing doesn't teach. Teamwork.

Many sports, including boxing, are individual pursuits. Sure, the swimmer, the golfer, the tennis player and the runner have support staffs and utilise other professionals such as psychologists, coaches and medical professionals to help them improve their standard and you m

I don't bloody believe this. It must be my computer. Or me. Grrrr....

Still, I will finish. Remainder of message is:



might call that his “team”. But in the ring, or on the court or the track or in the pool, they are alone (notwithstanding doubles or relay events). They are solitary figures competing for themselves.

Team sports such as rugby, lacrosse, cricket, football... these all promote the strength, unity and friendship of a joint venture... a common purpose. The individual being a part of something bigger than himself and having a duty to others. The friendships I have gained down the years from being a part of lacrosse, netball and rugby teams are priceless. The boxer who stands alone, doing what he does only for himself cannot know that.

Boxing is not the be-all and end-all of sport and it sure as hell isn't the only way in which a young man or woman can escape the ghetto, become a decent citizen, or learn how to stand up for themself. To argue that it is would be absolute nonsense.

all those years, I watched boxing. I never really sure why I watched it.

I know that most of my co-workers, I watched boxing. nobody in my school was a big fan of boxing. it might have been blood and guts, when they take shot at each others and the referee. I remember see a boxer accidently knock out a referee once, because he was standing to close to the boxers. it was a pretty scene, that boxer knock crab out of him, i think a right or left hook. it surprise both of boxers in the ring.

I have seen most the really famous rounds of all time. most of the boxing rounds, I thought they were boring to watched. who does like watch the blood that come from the fighter's face all over canvas. I ain't going to clean it up! I thought at times, it was gross and boring, sometime, watching a tooth flying out of the fighter's mouth was fun to watch.

watching boxing back then, because I had no sex life to go out and party. I had to choose sport and sex life. nowsdays, I don't have worry about important things lik ea sex life. I just have go to the city morgue, and pick up my dates. most of my dates don't even like sports. :lol

the good fight that take up over 10 round get boring to watching. it is interesting, two fighters holding out for duration of the fight.

I stopped watching boxing or drawn the line, when a famous boxer bite off half someone's ear. I realized that boxing was just too stupid. I was getting as stupid watching wrestling on tv. but another story to tell. the boxers should eat before the fight.

I haven't watched boxing over 20 years, I can't really don't know or tell you, why I watched boxing or any sport events. I am not really a big fan of sports, in general. it probably something to with killing time to watch on tv, I not really enjoy watching any sport event. I was try to fit in at work, to talk about it to my co-workers. back then, sometimes, there was nothing on tv to watched.

thinking back over the years, I watched any kind of sports on tv. what the fascination that sports have over men, is a mystery to me.

Some say they don't see the point of sport. Perhaps the whole point of sport is that it has no point if you judge a nation's well being by its economic or military power, or the medical and pyschological well being of its population. But sport does matter to large numbers of people, and it matters quite profoundly.

This isn't the place to delve into a deeper analysis of sport... I think I'll put my arguments up for sport as a journal post which will be more appropriate.

But I can see what you're saying about the reasons for watching boxing. Did you ever gamble on fights..? Did you ever pay to watch it..? I'd be interested to know if you did, and if so, what did you think about knowing that you were financially contributing to a major reason why it exists at all..?

Jennifer- I never paid to watch a fright on tv, and I never gamble on fighting. in 70's through at least, in las vesgas. one famous person, predictor that you trust get the odds with you than against you. " jimmy the greek " was the best.

Jennifer - only reasons why sports are so popular than watching is gambling on them, what the point in sport than? without big bucks in sports for different reasons, why would we need sports in the first place!

"Criminality comes from many sources, and one of the major causes is environment. But even then, environment alone doesn't produce ONLY criminals. Many a young man has climbed out of the ghetto by other means than climbing into the ring."

I've never inferred otherwise, but the simple fact remains that boxing has helped turn around the lives of many young men.

"And as for "No place to run, no place to hide", that's no different to being a batsman at the crease, with a fast bowler running in with a new ball and a ring of slip fielders waiting for him to nick it to them. The goalkeeper and the penalty taker in the shoot out have to go eyeball to eyeball with a stadium full of people watching... and there can be only one winner. Holding your nerve in a one-on-one confrontation isn't confined to boxing."

Not the same thing. You haven't boxed so you wouldn't understand.

" The boxer who stands alone, doing what he does only for himself cannot know that."

Unlike you I have played numerous team sports AND done boxing so please don't tell me what a boxer knows and doesn't know.

"Boxing is not the be-all and end-all of sport and it sure as hell isn't the only way in which a young man or woman can escape the ghetto, become a decent citizen, or learn how to stand up for themself. To argue that it is would be absolute nonsense"

I have never argued that boxing is the be all and end all of sport. I haven't even suggested it. Nor have I argued that the only way a young man can escape difficult circumstance or learn to stand up for himself is through boxing. To assert that i have is absolute nonsense.

most of the well-known american boxers as well came from the bottom up. there are hundreds or even thousands gyms that are provided the teaching help young men and women to better themselves.

boxing is a good example of training to build character and pride in themselves.

Anyway, getting back on track (this thread clearly states it i intended for fans of boxing and MMA) was a really good fight btw Alexander Volkov and Stefan Struve. Volkov, a former Bellator champion, won by tko in the third and remains unbeaten since crossing over to the UFC.

Please, everyone, try to stay on topic per the OP's request. Discussions about violence in sports and whether inherently violent sport is a worthy pursuit is of course acceptable, but please relegate them to their own threads.

I am posting this in response to a direct request by the OP and ask that anyone reading will abide that request.

Thanks in advance and carry on....