“Boxing Is a Savage, Barbaric and Exploitative Industry. It Is High Time That We Stopped Classifying It as a Sport and Banned It Entirely.”

There are two types of recognised, regulated modern boxing, amateur and professional. Professional boxing is a very popular spectator sport drawing big crowds and large television audiences for championship fights. Amateur boxing is less popular with spectators, but is contested at the Olympics. In this essay I will explore the above quote by giving a general overview of boxing, questioning the legality of boxing and exploring the arguments for and against banning boxing. I will then conclude giving my own opinions on the subject.

The legality of boxing depends on the laws view of consent. This issue was explored in the case of R v Brown . From the decision in this case, the House of Lords recognised there may be 'good reason' for the intended infliction of actual bodily harm, in which case a valid consent to it may be given. The exceptional cases where a person may validly consent to intentional actual bodily harm are situations where the law regards the public interest to require the exception. One of these exceptions was a properly conducted game or sport. So boxing is considered to be legal by the English Legal System. But it is only legal when it is conducted between licensed boxers that adhere to the rules of the sport and with the appropriate safety requirements are in place. A boxer may face prosecution or civil action if they act outside the rules of the sport, for example if they intentionally head butt or knee the opponent which is not allowed. This has been seen in other sports, for example in R v Lloyd a player was convicted of assault because "what the appellant did had nothing to do with rugby football." An appeal judge stated that while rugby is a physical game it is not a licence for thuggery.

Continuing with the issue of consent, the two boxers who get into a ring to trade blows do so because they want to. In participating they consent to being struck by the opponent. Those who say that boxing is savage and should be banned are not those...