If boxing is reduced to knockout punches what sort of sport is it?

“Big Knockout Boxing”, is the new US project and is designed to encourage more knockouts, but do we want to support a sport that is set up to give its participants traumatic brain injuries?

Like most combat sports, Boxing, hardly qualifies for the second part of that descriptor. It’s violence with a thin veil of organization.

BKB is an aggressive new sport, matching up two fighters who face off in ‘The Pit,’ a smaller fighting surface that forces more pound-for-pound action than traditional boxing. Shorter, two-minute rounds encourage aggressive punching and reward offensive fighters.

But is the knockout, essentially someone suffering a traumatic brain injury, the main attraction? Do we really admire the skills of fighters, or is that just a line some of us spin to justify our fascination with brutality? In an inherently violent contest, how much protection should athletes be provided with? Is Big Knockout Boxing awful, or is it merely another step along a continuum of awful things to which all combat sports belong?

It is very difficult to reasonably justify boxing as this sport is morally ambiguous at best. But the bad part about BKB is that its self-described appeal lies in its removal of the protections regular boxing offers its athletes. Without ropes, boxers will be forced to stand in the centre of the ring and trade punches until one of them falls over. Those punches will come from smaller gloves, ensuring more knockouts and potentially more hand injuries. Avoiding punishment through foot movement will be virtually impossible.

If BKB were to take off, it would result in more fighters getting hurt and shorter careers for those who remain.  

The men, who will reportedly clash in BKB’s first big event on August 16^th, are middleweights Gabriel Rosado and Brian Vera. Vera has never met a punch he couldn’t block with his face. Rosado is marginally better on defense, but still gets hit plenty. If all of their combined 16 losses had come by knockout, neither man would still be a contender.

Furthermore, skilled boxers, those who have put years of effort into honing their craft, would be discriminated against even more than they already are. The variety of styles, one of the things that makes boxing interesting, would shrink. Boxing would become more like human cockfighting.

So even if you are not a big fan of boxing, we can all agree that Big Knockout Boxing is an unwelcome development. Boxing might not be perfect but it at least offers its participants a fair chance to “hit and not get hit”.

By Adriana Rueda

Source: Theguardian.com

Image: theguardian.com