Informed Speculation

I blogged recently on my decision to withhold my dollars and viewing time from the sport of boxing (at least professional – my readers persuaded me there was value yet in amateur boxing). Jim Lampley, who knows a thing or two about this issue, writes a longish piece on the subject at Huff’n'Puff. Lampley was there, calling the match, while Leavander Johnson received the beating that ended his life.

Lampley says that everything that could be done was done, in this case, and I have no reason to doubt him. Where we differ is in our conclusions. Here’s Lampley:

It’s this simple: if you can’t live with Leavander Johnson’s death, then you ban boxing, because this one came right out of the culture of the sport. There is no obvious flashpoint for criticism or culpability here. Johnson died in the best of boxing circumstances. Either the entire sport is unforgiveable, or this was an unfortunate accident which must be accepted as part of the life.

I can live with it. I know enough fighters to be sure they all know the risk they take when they go into the ring. People who wash windows on the seventieth floor, people who handle high-intensity power lines, soldiers who go to war — they all know. Fighters know too. They take the risk to improve their lives, and the lives of the people around them, and often they do so because it’s the only such option they have.

There’s another option, though, and it’s the one I choose: you refuse to spend your hard-earned dollars watching two grown men beat themselves senseless. I stated before that my libertarian side won’t support a ban, but neither will I provide any part of the economic underpinning of this brutal spectacle.

Having said all that, I highly recommend the Lampley piece for some much-needed perspective from one who knows…