Personally when I see a boxing match and see somebody hit in the face it hurts me. I think that's called empathy. Getting used to boxing means you get used to seeing violence and it doesn't hurt so much any more. Then when the moment comes for you to hit someone in the face I guess it just feels like good sport. No?
I found chess more destructive than boxing — it serves little to no cardiovascular benefit, and can be hugely addictive. (Bullet chess and competition play can readily take over your life, and I've seen careers and relationships destroyed by it.)
The fittest people I've ever met have been boxers. Yes, the risk of head trauma and eye injury during fights is higher than even MMA (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26327287 ), and every fighter must weigh the risks of that with what they gain from the sport.
> Getting used to boxing means you get used to seeing violence and it
> doesn't hurt so much any more.
(1): Getting hit still hurts.
(2): Seeing people getting hit outside the ring hurts more, because you're more aware of what they're going through.
(3): I've seen boxing (and martial arts) restore respect in people and their communities; kids transformed from roaming the streets to training at the gym every day (not always in the ring; many days just working out).
It is easy to see two people knocking the crap out of each other in a ring and assume those exchanged blows embody everything the sport has to offer, but like many contact sports there are more positive side-effects than bloodied faces and the normalisation of savagery.
They experience less desire to assert themselves physically because they understand who they are and feel more secure in themselves.
They understand that you can’t really tell who is and isn’t worth getting into an altercation with just by looking at a person. There are a lot of very unassuming people who are quite good at handling themselves physically.
Out of continually confronting contained (often consensual) violence they develop a deep respect for what people, both themselves and others, are capable of. The idea of casually entering into real violence without good reason is not taken lightly.
Personally I like boxing because there's something incredibly confidence building about knowing that you can handle getting punched in the face and keep going. Very empowering.
It's a lot less unpleasant than most people imagine.
Actually if it came down to trying to do real violence, I think a lot of boxers wouldn't be any more prepared mentally than anyone else. It's orthogonal, in other words. On the other hand the physical training lends some advantages in defending oneself (but also in grocery-carrying, train-catching and everything else).
I also wouldn't equate offensive hitting and defensive hitting. When it comes to defensive, what you say is true: "when the moment comes for you to hit someone in the face," it helps to be mentally prepared for it. That moment may arrive by someone else's decision.
Finally when it comes to self-defense, hitting someone in the face specifically (unless it's an eye gouge or something) is really not a good thing to do without padded boxing gloves on. Faces are bony!
In one interview - with Peter Thiel, by the way - current WC Magnus Carlsen was asked about Josh Waitzkin. (Waitzkin is a fairly well known and highly talented chess player, whose biography inspired the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer". He's left chess for martial arts since.)
Carlsen half-jokingly said Waitzkin hadn't succeeded in high level chess due to his insufficient killer instinct, which apparently made him settle for a "more peaceful" sport :) https://youtu.be/ZBnSU-LX1ss?t=1h2m
Or to quote former world champion Karpov, "Botvinnik, Korchnoi and Kasparov had to hate the opponent to play successfully" (Botvinnik and Kasparov = other WCs, Korchnoi was a close contender for the title).
Is that something we should be encouraging the youth to be good at? ;)
My tongue-in-cheek point was along the lines that just because a discipline doesn't involve punching someone in the face - unlike boxing, called out for it by the parent comment - doesn't necessarily mean it's not a brutal sport... in psychological dimension, obviously.
I practiced thai boxing for many years and it may sound odd, but I don't really see boxing as a violent sport, no more than let say soccer. I've never hit anyone (other than on a ring) and never will, and I hate violence as much as most people. In the context of boxing I see hitting as a technical move.
Besides the occasional bruises, rare broken ribs or black eyes, I've never injured myself. Most of the time, you practice with control and with various protections, wary of your partner level.
Competitions are more violent, but even there, there's a gradation. Fighters are matched by skills and weight, depending on their level use protections (helmet, shin guards), and the referee is there to stop the match if needed.
Does boxing cause brain damage? This article says: "Almost certainly": https://www.livescience.com/1519-boxing-brain-damage.html
There's also forms of karate that allow full contact.
But I look at Thai Boxing matches with flying knees, elbows, etc and that recent video where a fighter footswept someone and then kneed them in the head on the way down and I think "Fuck that."
One area that is different to a lot of other sports is that fights aren't stopped for bleeding often as it is very common for thai style elbows to open gashes on the face. A lot of experienced fighters will have scarring around the eyes from getting cut with elbows.
That said in the west fights are split into 3 classes (4 if you include novice fights) C which has no elbows or knees to the head, B which has no elbows to the head and A which uses All legal thai techniques
But then, open-palm strikes are very effective and virtually riskless for the attacker. If you are good at it, you can at the same time strike the opponent's chin and put your fingers in his eyes, but here we are obviously way out of sport's territory and way into aggressive self-defense / violent street fight.
Perhaps empathy isn't so useful if you're lacking objectivity. Or perhaps failing to understand why people do the thing they dos means you don't have as much empathy as you think.
In many ways, boxing is one of the less violent sports around, both for those who practice and those who watch. I'm more of a football (soccer) fan than a boxing one, but if I had kids I'd rather bring them to a boxing match than to the stadium where they would grow learning that faking a foul can bring a penalty and the victory.
I've known several amateur fighters, and they all report that the decision to actually attack their opponent in anger is the hardest step for most people making the transition from training for fitness to actual competitive fighting.
Two of those people were exceptions, though: one was a junior lawyer whose approach to her first fight earned her the nickname "Basher", and the second a cleaned-up ex-gang member who used to fight for fun in bars.
I've often wondered whether Basher was merely applying the same mindset she learned as a lawyer to the ring.
It's also empathy to see someone hit someone well and feel the flush of success.
I'm not athletic, and have never been good at sports, but the very few times that I've done them and done well it has been exhilarating in a way intellectual pursuits never have been.