Is boxing a sport?

Boxing is a popular sport that many people seem to be fascinated by.

Newspapers, magazines and sports programmes on TV frequently cover boxing matches.

Professional boxers earn a lot of money, and successful boxers are treated as big heroes.

It seems to me that some people, especially men, find it appealing because it is an aggressive sport.

When they watch a boxing match, they can identify with the winning boxer, and this gives them the feeling of being a winner themselves.

Sometimes, fans are rooting for a particular boxer, for example because the boxer comes from their own country, and if their boxer loses, they often feel as if they have lost a fight themselves.

It is a fact than many people have feelings of aggression from time to time, but they cannot show their aggression in their everyday lives.

Watching a boxing match gives them an outlet for this aggression.

However, there is a negative side to boxing.

It can be an extremely dangerous sport.

Although boxers wear gloves during the fights, and amateur boxers even have to wear helmets, there have frequently been accidents in both professional and amateur boxing, sometimes with dramatic consequences.

Boxers have suffered from head injuries, and, occasionally, fighters have even been killed as a result of being knocked out in the ring.

Moreover, studies have shown that there are often long-term effects of boxing, in the form of serious brain damage, even if a boxer has never been knocked out.

To conclude, I´m personally not at all in favor of aggressive sports like boxing.

I think it would be better if less time was given to aggressive sports on TV, and we celebrated more men and women from non-aggressive sports as ours heroes and heroines in our society.

I believe that the world is aggressive enough already.

Of course people like competitive sports, and so do I, but I think that hitting other people in an aggressive way is not something that should be regarded as a sport.