Sport

Noel Hester: In Defence of Boxing

Boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire.

So said George Foreman, former heavyweight champion of the world, Ali fall guy and of late, amiable barbecue salesman.

Boxing is easy to bag. The medical evidence against it is unchallengeable. Most women hate it for its violence and its lurid voyeurism. The sport is regularly dogged by corruption. For its critics it is senseless. Just mad.

I love it. I gave it a miss for a few years after it was hijacked at its highest level by the dodgy Don King.

But earlier this year, in Auckland, I tuned into a fight between David Tua and a classy, young, American fighter. The winner would become the number one challenger for the world heavyweight crown against the winner of the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield bout.

In classic, boxing theatre the compere announced the contenders. In the blue corner, from SOUTH Auckland, New Zeeeeeeeeland, Daaaaavid Tua.

David Tua might be a thug. But if he is, he's OUR thug.

South Auckland is Once Were Warriors country. Each year when I go back there, it looks more like an LA ghetto. State services have folded, unemployment is endemic, gangs are rife, and wealth is relentlessly redistributed from poor to rich - supervised by a nasty, heartless government. And for everyone living there David Tua's mum is a neighbour.

For the first eight rounds Tua, a one dimensional fighter with one punch - a big right - was totally outclassed by a more complete opponent. At the end of the eighth round - dead on the bell - The American dropped his hands and Tua creamed him with his big right.

The American wobbled back to his corner and when he came back for the ninth - still in cuckoo land - Tua finished him with an avalanche.

David hooked me as well.

Boxing and class

Irish featherweight champion Barry McGuigan was once asked: Why are you a boxer?

'I can't be a poet. I can't tell stories...' he replied.

Jack Dempsey to the same question:

'When you're fighting you're fighting for one thing: money.'

And Larry Holmes:

'It's hard being black. You ever been black? I was black once - when I was poor.'

After Michael Spinks won an Olympic gold medal he quit boxing and went to work scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets in a St Louis chemical factory. But the conditions in the factory were so bad he had to return to boxing.

'Heck, breathing those chemicals, I could have died faster there than in the ring,' he said.

Boxing as violence

Boxing is a high stakes sport. Death is always a possibility.

The novelist George Garrett, also an amateur boxer, had this to say about the risks and the men he met who took them:

'People went into this brutal and often self destructive activity for a rich variety of reasons most of them bitterly antisocial and verging on the psychotic. Most of the fighters I knew of were wounded people who felt a deep powerful urge to wound others at real risk to themselves. In the beginning what happened was that almost in every case there was so much self discipline required and craft involved so much else besides one's original motivations to concentrate on, that these motivations became at least cloudy and vague and were often forgotten, lost completely. Many good and experienced fighters become gentle and kind people ... They have the habit of leaving their fight in the ring. And even there, in the ring, it is dangerous to invoke too much anger. It can be a stimulant, but it is very expensive of energy. It is impractical to get mad most of the time.'

George Foreman is living testimony to this analysis. The surly, malevolent, young George from the Rumble in the Jungle was transformed by the experience of that loss into a likeable, sociable and - in his own words - a better person.

Boxing and literature

In the rich history of literature about boxing there is one writer who for me stands out - Joyce Carol Oates.

An aficionado since her childhood her 'On Boxing' is a beautiful, intelligent and insightful look at the sport:

'There are boxers who perform skilfully, but mechanically, who cannot improvise in response to another's alteration of strategy; there are boxers performing at the peak of their talent who come to realise, mid-fight, that it won't be enough; there are boxers - including great champions - whose careers end abruptly, and irrevocably as we watch.'

'(Boxing) is not just about violence but also about intelligence, cunning and strategy. It invites pain, humiliation, loss, chaos.'

'Men and women with no personal or class reason for anger are inclined to dismiss the emotion, if not piously condemn it in others. Why such discontent? Why such unrest? why so strident? Yet this world is conceived in anger - and in hatred, and in hunger - no less than it is conceived in love: that is one of the things that boxing is all about.'

Boxing and humour

'He went to school ; he's no fool. I predict that he will go in eight to prove that I'm great; and if he wants to go to heaven, I'll get him in seven. He'll be in a worse fix if I cut it to six. And if he keeps talking jive, I'll cut it to five. And if he makes me sore , he'll go like Archie Moore, in four. And if that don't do, I'll cut it to two. And if he run, he'll go in one. And if he don't want to fight, he should keep his ugly head home that night.' - Muhammud Ali.

'I was never knocked out. I've been unconscious, but it's always been on my feet. - Floyd Patterson.

'If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it.' - Marvin Hagler.

So, you got a problem with boxing.

Well I'll fight you sucker. I'll fight you anywhere. I don't care how big the ring is. I'd fight a chump like you in a telephone booth ....

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  Issue 25 contents

»	Unions Embrace Open Shop
»	Council Sets Benchmarks for Vizard Deal
»	Steggles Treats Workers Like Chooks
»	Rail Workers on Collision Course with Carr
»	Reith Shamed Into Talk On Entitlement Fund
»	Unionists Asked to Defer NRMA Vote
»	Fire Fighters Use Net
»	Crew of Convenience Behind Sydney Oil Spill?
»	Sixty Junkets Join Currawong Hit Squad
»	Workers Table Petition for Gay Reform
»	Indonesian Trade Union Leaders to Visit Australia
»	International And Community Groups Oppose Reith�s Bill

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Country Labor Asks Question
»	The Ombudsman Replies
»	Confessions of a German Call Centre Agent
»	WorkCover Off the Track

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