The Observation Deck

As you may or may not know, Youngstown's own Kelly "the ghost" Pavlik is fighting for a title tonight on HBO. He's been getting a decent amount of publicity lately, even here in Cleveland.

Boxing used to be a very major sport in America. For example, they used to have pro boxing nights at St. Ed's back in the 50s. The sport has declined for many reasons, including bad management, lack of free tv, etc. Many critics have decried the sport as barbaric, and some have even called for it to be abolished.

Would the world be better off without boxing? Or is it a noble sport deserving of more attention?

I consider Boxing a sport...because it's more organized than any other fighting out there besides olympic style wrestling.

It's the will and determination of two humans going against each other...I've found myself watching it not to see someone get hit or beat up, but to admire the work ethic and battle that both individuals go through.

It's one tough sport thats for sure!

MMA and the UFC have replaced boxing for most people.That being said, boxing is still a great sport. It is one of the hardest sports that I have ever done. I think that the popularity of boxing declined in the 90's (it now appears to be to rebounding.). It is great to see the WBA and WBC rankings now include boxers from all over the world. Boxing is a sport of skill and endurance. It is one of my favorite Olympic events.

Boxing was for many years the most popular sport in America.

The sport is not barbaric. To name a few...Dempsey, Tunney, Marciano, Graziano, Moore, Robinson, Leonard, Mancini, Keough, Blevins, Norton, Ali, Frazier, Holmes, Foreman, and Holyfield were not barbaric fighters. Pugilism is much safer than many sports including riding horses and playing football. It is truly a great sport, especially at the high school, college, inter-military, Olympic, and other amateur levels.

In the 50's and 60's there were matches and training at Navy Park, Estabrook, and numerous other venues where some of us learned how tuff the sport is. If you had the guts to fight in the golden gloves , you were admired.

Joe Louis, the great inspiration to a generation, said in the ring you can run but you cannot hide. With its weight classes, its similar to high school and college wrestling which I think draw some of the young men who would have been good boxers.

I think young men would benefit if there was a resurgence of boxing but it likely won't happen. However, there may be an upsurge in white collar boxing which I have not followed. See "The Boxer's Workout" by Peter DePasquale which talks about this phenomenon and about training. It would be interesting to know where the nearest good boxing gym is.

Kelly has heart!!!!!!!!!!!

Hasn't boxing actually become more dangerous with the addition of more padding to the gloves? When boxing was bare knuckle or close to bare knuckle fights would end sooner and there was less repeated brain shaking. Some say the same thing about football...less padding was overall better for the athletes than more.

Sure, it hurts more to get hit in the head with bare fist or while wearing only a leather helmet but the repeated buffeting of the head is causing more long-term brain damage (Ali is a perfect example). Odd that safer would eventually produce more dangerous.

As for barbaric vs. honorable athletic event, well, that depends on the fighters. There have been some fine named fighters in this bunch but it really takes one boxer biting off the ear of another to taint an entire sport. Tough call. I think boxing, as with any sport, is only a honorable as those that participate in it. If kids see athletes as cocky, preening, self-promoting attention whores then that is what they emulate. If they seem them as violent (boxing is not about violence, really), abusive and win-at-all-costs type folks, that is what they will emulate, too. So if boxing or any sport deserves attention, it should only do so when its representatives are worthy of that attention.

Boxing gloves protect both fighters hands, body and skulls. The force of a blow (with boxing gloves on) is distributed over a larger area.

boxing was a victim of its own success, I guess. and America's own success. There's no way to make a living at it at the small time. there are no venues for it at the small time.