HAVING interviewed the personable Art Green, The Bachelor, during his TV show, and seen his genuine fun and crowd engagement during the Bring It To Colombo netball fundraiser at the weekend, my stomach lurches sideways at the announcement he's going to do a celebrity charity boxing match with former All Black Zac Guildford.
I don't find boxing distasteful in short measure. As a spectator, I'd be bored by round four, but I quite enjoy seeing the highlights of a professional match.
And, that, for me, is the key word here: professional. The ultimate purpose of a boxing match is to render the other person unconscious, or at least incapacitating their motor co-ordination so badly the fight's over. The fighter who beats the other person to the floor is doing his or her job, and getting paid to do it. Hardened amateurs, and those competing in the Olympic Games, are dedicated to excellence in their sport. I do not begrudge the hours of hard work that goes towards creating an Olympic-level or professional athlete.
That, to me, is the realm where boxing should remain. It's a dangerous sport, and any layperson attempt at it is little more than a brawl and does the sport no favours at all. If I watch boxing, I want to watch the elite. I do not want to see a brawl.
It matters very little to me that these Fights for Life are in the name of charity. You could probably get money for charity from a schoolyard fight, but that doesn't make it right. I have no doubt Fight for Life earns good money for charity because of the novelty of two unskilled fighters swinging punches at each other. You have no real idea of the outcome - you might as well put two fighting roosters into the ring.
