“Who wants to watch women’s boxing?” asks Coral Barry on the BBC website sports pages. “Everyone, it seems.” This followed the split decision victory for Katie Taylor against Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden which took place in the early hours of the British morning. My loyal reader will know that I find men’s boxing a difficult watch, even if the ghoul in me finds me watching a fight when I have too much time on my hands. If I was asked the question, “Who wants to watch women’s boxing?” my answer would be a firm no.
This could be the misogynist or the sexist at work in me, but I rather hope not. I would no more want to ban women’s boxing than I would men’s, although I admit that my apparently liberal attitude is framed more by the fact that professional boxing is regulated. A ban would simply drive it underground with no regulations at all.
For all the hype about last night’s “epic” fight – and perhaps it was epic: I haven’t watched it – both fighters will surely pay a long term price for the fight in terms of brain damage. Look at these excerpts from the BBC report:
Serrano cornered Taylor against the ropes and fired off crunching shots, connecting with the head of Taylor and drawing blood. With the referee watching closely, an unsteady Taylor pushed forward in reply and managed to bring the fight further into the ring.
Taylor might have been swinging, but for only the second time in her stellar career she looked one punch away from hitting the deck.
Hurting Taylor repeatedly with heavy hooks.
Taylor had Serrano hurt but was then cracked by a powerful shot. Both women were unsteady on their feet but swinging when the final bell arrived.
And so on and so on. But here’s the thing: the human brain once damaged stays damaged. We have seen plenty of evidence of punch-drunk male fighters over the years, from Muhammad Ali downwards. Boxing, for all its glamour, is still a sport in which the object is to render the opponent unconscious. The brain damage that stems from punches to the head is an inevitable by-product.
In some sports, like both codes of rugby, players are removed from the action when concussion is suspected. In last night’s prize fight, “both women were unsteady on their feet”. It is likely that they were suffering various degrees of concussion. If boxing adopted the rugby concussion protocols, assessments would see each fight being stopped almost all the time. One big difference is that in rugby, the normal intention is not to knock the opponents unconscious: in boxing it’s the whole point.
I heard an interview with Taylor this morning and she sounded clear and coherent, so hopefully the damage she suffered wasn’t too bad. But more fights like that and she could join the long list of pugilists who can’t string a sentence together.
Women have the right to beat the shit out of each other in the same way that men do. And I have the right to not watch it.
