Cage fighting ... boxing ... licensed thuggery
22-07-07: SOME times it seems the human race has not moved on much in the last 2,000 years. Then, the mob howled for blood as gladiators tried to kill, maim or cripple each other. Nowadays, the rabble pay good money to watch two men – and sometimes women – brutishly attempt to batter each other into submission or unconsciousness, all in the name of ‘sport’.
The more advanced civilisation becomes, the greater the demand for crude and bloodthirsty spectator events. The trend is revulsion at blood sports involving animals; yet as long as human beings are desperate enough or greedy enough or stupid enough to get into an arena and attempt to beat the living daylights out of each other, there will always be a baying crowd seeking a vicarious thrill.
The latest manifestation of the baser side of human nature is ‘Cage Wars’, an evening of no-holds-barred brawling masquerading as ‘entertainment’, in which two fighters enter an octagonal cage for an explosion of aggression and grievous bodily harm which, outside the arena, would result in a charge of criminal assault
And if that description turns you on, do not spend £45 on a ticket for the event in Glasgow next month – use it for a much-needed session with a good psychiatrist, you sad, sick so-and-so.
Logically, the same applies to any devotee of professional boxing (with the emphasis on ‘professional’, since amateur fighting is slightly more civilised). Anyone who has seen the ignoble art of pugilism up close knows that the Marquis of Queensberry rules are a thin disguise for seedy barbarity and commercial exploitation.
Depressingly, 4,000 are expected at the Glasgow event. Cage fighting is said to be the world's fastest growing sport and a recent promotion in Manchester attracted 14,000.
The promoters of ‘Cage War’ describe it as ‘mixed martial arts’ and disingenuously deny it is simply violence for its own sake, insisting that it involves trained athletes (trained for mayhem, one supposes, and any athleticism is of the nightclub bouncer kind). They also claim that it is ‘the oldest competitive sport in the world’, presumably in the same way that prostitution is the oldest profession.
Sporting it is not, as videos prove; a film of a recent bout in Belfast shows one bullet-headed veteran winning in seconds by pouncing on his inexperienced opponent, smashing him down, then leaping on him and hammering his head into the canvas with his elbow. This is a technique known as ‘ground and pound’, outlawed in every other legal combat sport but allowed in Cage Wars along with points for blows with the hands, feet, knees and elbows, choke holds and forced submissions.Opponents of this degrading spectacle, who compare it to cock-fighting, dog fights and gladiatorial combat, are accused of sensationalising and misrepresenting an activity that is no more harmful than rugby. Yet the official websites make it clear that the roughhouse brutality is the main selling-point and the whole point is the glorification of violence.Why else is the Glasgow event billed as ‘Cage Rage’? One official website in the US promises ‘Gladiators Fighting’, ‘Caged Colosseum’ and ‘Carnage’. How long before some entrepreneur tries to replicate the film violence of Thunderdome and Rollerball?
What sort of people would pay up to £45 to spend an evening watching human beings acting like animals? Who would take a child, since children are welcomed if accompanied by anyone over 18?
Presumably they are the same kind of ‘fans’ with a sadistic turn of mind who support professional boxing – and let us not have any hypocrisy about them being aficionados who appreciate the skills on display. Pro boxing is a desperate, degrading and crudely commercial display, masquerading as ‘sport’.Times have changed since bareknuckle fighters in marathon mauls for the benefit of aristocrats, but the mentality has not. The nobs like Queensberry have been replaced by the fat cats and their floozies in the ringside seats, making money on hefty sidebets. People actually go along to boxing dinners and pay for the privilege of having the ringside tablecloths spattered with blood, patronisingly sticking fivers and tenners in the mitts of battered boys who have proved themselves ‘game’.Deaths in the boxing ring have been well-documented over the years but, pointless as these are, the real tragedy is in the lower-level long-term damage to boxers. Look at the faces, the distorted noses, the twisted ears, the scars around the eyes and foreheads, more probably caused by headbutts rather than punches, and the arthritic hands from broken knuckles.My uncle in Kirkcaldy was a boxing promoter (I was the lad who help up the round numbers in the ring and caused much mirth by holding them upside down). My memory is of fighters who had been cheered from the ring ending up on our kitchen table being stitched and bandaged, with blood dripping on the linoleum.And still the damage is being done: Scot Willie Limond was adjudged to have performed heroically in last weekend’s Commonwealth lightweight title fight against . Amir Khan. Yet he ended up with a broken jaw and a damaged eardrum, the third time in his career he has had a burst eardrum. Limond will be taking a terrible risk if he continues to fight and those who encourage him will bear a heavy responsibility.Call it cage fighting, mixed martial arts, boxing, pugilism or ‘the manly art of self-defence’, brutality is never sport. Licensed thuggery is what it is – and a so-called civilised society should not treat it as entertainment.
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