Boxing (the Sport)

I know I'll probably get "cyber bullied" for saying this, but I think boxing is one of the stupidest professional sports. I'm all for teaching it as a self-defense method for RL situations, but do two people need to get in a ring and prove who can outbox the other for fame and glory? I find the premise of it to be barbaric and pompous.

What's your opinion of boxing?

Never wanted to learn it for the competetive part, I always just wanted to learn how to do it for the exercise. Of course I think it was more interesting back before all of wrestling and sports became so painfully obviously fixed. Lou Costello, the fat little man in the Abbott and Costello comedies, was a boxer himself and his footwork in one movie tells of this in itself, and I think I read that he won 35 fights in a row, then the first one he lost, he quit the whole thing. Not what you'd expect from a fat, short funny man in films.

I liked to see Oscar De La Hoya all shirtless and sweaty, that's all. I don't really get the appeal of these kind of sports...Although it IS less confusing to me than trying to follow what's going on during a football game or something.

Not one of my faves to watch, never really got into the hype of watching it, but my uncle taught me how to box when I was younger. It's great excercise and you learn really great defensive techniques. Now that you mention it, I'm going to start hitting the bag again. I used to have one in my mother's garage that I would hit whenever I got mad. It got pretty raggedy so I threw it out.

I can’t defend the brutality of gladiatorial combat such as boxing but I think it’s one of the most dramatic and exciting things to watch. Or the most boring. As the saying goes, styles make fights.

Boxing has already been overshadowed by MMA. I'm surprised it even still exists.

Haven't really paid attention to boxing for over a decade. I'm sort of asi-asi with it. On the one hand, it's good exercise and arguably less barbaric a sport than things like UFC and wrestling, but on the other hand, it can be boring and is easily the most repetitive. Like TPP said, though, of most physical sports, Boxing is probably the easiest for non-sports fans to understand.

It's a martial art. Nobody kicks up as much of a fuss about Judo, Muay Thai or Capoeira.

There's also a large distinction between professional boxing and amateur boxing (the kind seen at the Olympics). Amateur boxing places a much higher emphasis on technical point scoring and penalizes dangerous head blows.

Boxing is also a relatively safe sport in terms of fatalities. College football is more dangerous than boxing. Horse Racing is lethal compared to boxing.

There is a valid concern that, while not causing many fatalities, it can often lead to permanent brain damage. However, many other sports when played professionally over a number of years can lead to degenerative physical conditions such as osteoarthritis.

I'm not a fan and never was. I never understood the competitive nature of it, as it seems so brutal.

im a fan of boxing.. i have frens/fam who order fights pretty often... i used to think it was boring when i was younger, but i enjoy watchin it now.