I do not like boxing — not because of any philosophical objections to two men trying to assault each other in a ring, but rather because I’ve seen so much fake boxing in movies that the real thing is boring (not to mention crooked). But on the other hand, boxers are fun to read about because unlike in most sports where most athletes are expected to show some respect for their opponents, in boxing it is pretty much the reverse.
For example, Lennox Lewis said one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard a sports star say. Asked about a rematch with Mike Tyson, Lewis said he still wanted to go through with the fight adding that, “Mike Tyson is a biter, but Lennox Lewis is a fighter.” Okay, not quite Ali-esque, but then again Lewis isn’t running around calling for the death of people in interracial relationships like Ali did either.
ESPN had a story on the fight where somebody asked Lewis if he felt he had any sort of moral obligation one way or another in regard to going through with a fight with Tyson, and Lewis said, “The moral obligation is to go in and give him a whipping.”
On the other hand, the bizarre thing is that this whole debacle shows that boxing is even more fake than professional wrestling. In any other sport, a Lewis/Tyson match would never happen because Tyson is such a joke these days he has no shot at actually beating Lewis. Lewis apparently wants the fight just so he can say he beat Tyson. That may have meant something a decade ago, but it will be a meaningless victory. That’d be a bit like the St. Louis Rams saying they want to face the Detroit Lions in the Super Bowl. Yeah, that’d really show the critics.