What do you think of professional boxing, and those 'octagon' sports.

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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The Sticks, Northeast PA.
Personally, I don't like professional boxing and those 'octagon' sports. I feel queasy about some guy getting his bones broken, so I can be entertained, and may even bet a dollar or two on the outcome. Another human being could be injured for the rest of his life bothers me.
What are your feelings about professional boxing, and those 'octagon' sports?
 

I think that refers to the Mixed Martial Arts events, often also called "cage fighting" because they're usually held in a cage-like apparatus. Pretty much everything goes, short of kicking the *******s, eye gouging and biting.

Not my favorite sport, by a long yard.
 

I don't agree with how an opponent is ruled as unable to continue. In boxing one gets knocked down the fight stops temporarily. In mixed martial arts when one gets knocked down and sometimes is knocked out the opponent instantly attacks taking advantage of the wounded opponent. The referee watches the victim lying down from the blow and allows several blows to the head before he stops the fight. That is very wrong because one fighter has all of his senses while his opponent does not and is incapable of defending himself or herself.
 
Boxing was a required sport when I was a kid. Boxing and baseball were my dad's passions. It was a big deal when my brothers and I got our first boxing gloves and baseball gloves for Christmas. That's when you knew you were about to enter a rite of passage. You graduated from the sand box to the sand-lot and the boxing ring. Boxing gloves came first, when you were like 4, and your first baseball glove at around age 6 or 7. When I got my first set of boxing gloves, my older brother already had a few years practice sparring with dad, but they were both pretty happy they finally had a sparring partner that was closer to Grant's eye-level. Dad's only instructions were "Now, go easy on 'im" but he always said it with a wink, and nobody went easy on anybody by the time I was 9 or 10.

I've seen mixed martial arts competitions both in person and on TV, but not in an octagon. My nephew used to compete.
 
fmdog44 said:
I don't agree with how an opponent is ruled as unable to continue. In boxing one gets knocked down the fight stops temporarily. In mixed martial arts when one gets knocked down and sometimes is knocked out the opponent instantly attacks taking advantage of the wounded opponent. The referee watches the victim lying down from the blow and allows several blows to the head before he stops the fight. That is very wrong because one fighter has all of his senses while his opponent does not and is incapable of defending himself or herself.
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That didn't happen when I used to watch mixed martial arts matches. Competitors showed each other respect and good sportsmanship. It was The Way.
 
Boxing and baseball were big in my youth, whether in the ring or diamond or out in some empty lot. We loved and lived it back then, often with a good fight or game every day or so after school on the way home. That said, I am not big on "professional sports" any more as the seem more like highly-paid entertainment than sport,.
 
Not sure why and it would be very interesting to find out but although I detest the brutality, the competition and skill is strangely fascinating. I suppose it appeals to some primal instinct. :oops:
 
JonDouglas said:
Boxing and baseball were big in my youth, whether in the ring or diamond or out in some empty lot. We loved and lived it back then, often with a good fight or game every day or so after school on the way home. That said, I am not big on "professional sports" any more as the seem more like highly-paid entertainment than sport,.
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The training is insane, especially in pro football, and the skills are next-level, but so is corruption on the business end, imo. I lost interest as a TV spectator back in the 80s/early 90s.
 
PamfromTx said:
Uggghhh, not fond of boxing; it is too brutal to watch.
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What some may fail to understand is that boys of my generation were raised by toughened men who were hardened by the war and had less patience with people or kids who wouldn't stand up for themselves. Boxing and self-defense was just something men and boys did. No big deal and no pain, no gain.
 
It seems that part of "human nature" is violent sports. The Romans had their gladiators, and that mindset has progressed throughout history. Boxing, MMA, and even Pro Football seems to garner more fans, if there are people beating the crap out of each other, or players being taken off the field on a stretcher. Even the somewhat fake WWE matches are centered around doing as much physical damage to the opponent as possible. If that stuff was "real", most of those characters would be in the hospital after every match. I guess these "athletes" serve to satiate the subconscious feelings many people harbor.
 
JonDouglas said:
What some may fail to understand is that boys of my generation were raised by toughened men who were hardened by the war and had less patience with people or kids who wouldn't stand up for themselves. Boxing and self-defense was just something men and boys did. No big deal and no pain, no gain.
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It was one of the ways dads prepared their sons for life's challenges. Life is full of those and they are unrelenting.
 
There will always be competative sports between individuals and teams, and as long there are rules to prevent permanent injury as boxing and MMA have, I'm fine with it.
 
My Dad used to box, during the depression, to live.
One of my favorite people in history was Jack Dempsey from Manassas. Not many men I revere, but he was one of them.
Braddock was impressive too, as a man and a fighter.
 
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