Fixin' the Fight Game

I love boxing. Classic boxing... Marvelous Marvin vs. The Hit Man... Ali vs Foreman... hell... Ali vs. Anybody... Any weight class... I don't care. I just love good boxing.

That's the problem though... There is no good boxing anymore. Not in the heavy-weight division anyway. I mean... when a disinterested Mike Tyson is the biggest draw in boxing... there's a problem people.

But what is the problem?

Simple. No athletes. No characters. No draws.

Even the dimmest bulbs of the inner-city have figured out that boxing is to dangerous. I mean lets face it... havin' bad knees at 60 is a lot better than bein' all but brain dead at 50. Football please!

As usual... the very bodies out to make the game safe, have actually made it to dangerous to fool around with... how? The gloves.

Boxing used to be a very different sport. It was bare-knuckles. It was bloody. It was brutal. It was not however, fatal.

See... when you're fighting with bare knuckles... you have to worry about what you're hittin'. Skulls after all can be pretty dad-gummed hard. Hit one the wrong way, and you'll break every knuckle you have. This is where gloves come in.

Gloves changed everything. Without them... boxers could now take these huge hooks. Try that bare knuckled sometime. If you hit the guy in the temple... he'll go out like a light... but if he doesn't? If you miss even slightly? You'll be fightin' one handed for the rest of the night.

It's those huge hooks to the temple that cause the brain damage that we see in aged fighters today.

Take the gloves off. Sure it'll be bloody. Sure it will look far less civilized. Sure it will look far more dangerous.

It's all looks though. They put the gloves on so women could watch without gettin' blood on their skirts. We got TV now... no worries.