COMMENT: Boxers threatened with bans.... for fighting

Last weekend boxing hit a new low with, it seems, as much violence before and after the "big fight" as during it.

But what do people expect?

This so-called "sport" is controlled thuggery. Quite how it remains in the Olympics, indeed actually expanded in the Okympics with the inclusion of female boxing, is a mystery.

The. "sport" is run by dodgy wheeler-dealers, controlled by managers and trainers wo appear to have dubious backgrounds, and competed by virtually brain dead idiots who think that thumping someone, trying to hurt another human being, is a reasonable way to earn money - sadly, huge amounts of money.

I just don't get boxing. Haye and Chisora look likely to be charged for violence that, in the ring, the crowd would have applauded.

Some, desperately trying to defend boxing, say it gives structure and discipline and a way out of poverty and crime to men (and now women) who would otherwise probably end in jail. As far as I'm concerned they may as well end in jail because, while boxing remains legal, it is a stain on all society.

Dog fighting, badger baiting, etc. are all criminal in the UK and yet we allow two men, often with a restricted intelligence, to fight each other for entertainment. It might not always end in death but that's not the point. Look at the deaths, the brain damage, the other injuries...

Who can look at the state that Muhammud Ali is in today and say that boxing is a good thing? Only the most idiotic dullard.

Defenders of boxing say about the amount of effort that has been put into making the "sport" safer. They refer to amateur boxing having head guards and restricted numbers of rounds. And their excuses go on and on. They miss the point, though. Boxing is trying to hurt an opponent through punching them. How can that ever been acceptable? Isn't it monstrous that society still allows these modern day gladiators to fight for money?

Yes, banning boxing would drive it underground but now, with it legal, there is already illegal fighting taking place.

The British Medical Association has long called for a ban on boxing but successive governments ignore them. This is a dereliction of duty.

Boxing must be banned. The London Olympics are shamed by having it. Thuggery and violence has no place in the modern world.