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Banning Boxing Essay

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Banning Boxing

Last year half the world stood still for one of the biggest spectacles in sport - a championship-boxing match. In May 2002, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson stepped in the ring to settle a yearlong grudge by fighting each other. For the event, both men were flown to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they trained for weeks and prepared themselves for the bout. The revenue created from stadium seats, advertising and pay-per-view television (arranged by Don King of course) amounted to over 100 million dollars, all leading up to a bout that, in all possibility, could have been over in the first round. Months of preparation and millions of dollars in investment would climax in a 3-minute event. …show more content…

Years of abuse in the ring (punches to the chest, head and stomach) have taken their toll on him, and the evidence of brain damage is chillingly present in his constant shakes and movements - a reminder of the risk involved when entering the ring.

As well as the physical danger there is also corruption in boxing, as illegal gambling on fixed matches can lead to gang crime and murders. As shown in the film "Snatch", a gang leader is led to placing extraordinary amounts of money on a fixed bout and ends up in trouble with his clients when one of the fighters had a different bet and caused him to lose. These chains of events can be seen as a justice for those who take part in illegal gambling, but nonetheless it should be stopped. Boxing leads us to believe that our problems can be solved with violence, instead of dealing with them properly. If boxing were banned, it would almost certainly go underground and cause even more crimes to deal with.

On the other hand, there are some advantages to boxing, in that it generates a lot of income for the organisers, promoters and coaches, and even the boxers themselves get a pay check in excess of one million dollars (in the biggest events). The fighters are clearly willing to take the risk of injury and concussion to earn large amounts of money, and if the worst should happen, they accept the responsibility of their actions.

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