It’s time to talk about the dangers of boxing

Michael Vick, a professional football player, was jailed on a felony offense and his career badly damaged because he was involved in professional dogfighting. It is hard not to see race having played a part in such a stiff sentence, assessing comparisons, but that's history now.

The sentence matched the outrage of dog lovers. Notwithstanding this shift in public sentiment, dogfighting has roots in a variety of historic traditions that have engaged millions of people, like it or not, in various countries including supposedly civilized Great Britain on into the  20th century.

Even after the Vick case, similar traditions still survive with cockfights, a related activity, still found underground, particularly in the South. Though illegal in the U.S. for the last 10 years, cockfighting is still a popular and legal tradition in Puerto Rico and U.S. territories.

Probably because more dogs are raised as pets, public opinion has run strong against dogfights for much longer.

The raising of dogs for fighting can be compared to raising dogs for guard duty, handicapped assistance, even running races. Dogs are a malleable species and can be trained for a variety of activities from combat to being lovable pets for your granddaughter.

Some species have been bred so much and for so long to as combat attack dogs that adapting to being child's pet can have tragic results.

Not to pick on dogs, the human species can be adapted to all kinds of purposes too. In their own way, dogs enjoy what they do.

It is hard not to share their excitement at the beginning of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race even though we know the effort about to be required of them will kill some of them, and excite some varieties of dog lovers to condemn the race.

But even though the dogs raised for fighting may enjoy fighting, even unto the death, as a modern society we deplore it to a sufficient degree that it is made a crime.

[Humanity needs to evolve beyond violent sports]

On the other hand, in certain elements of American society, fighting among boys is held up as an important part of growing up. Stand up for yourself. Hit back, knock the bully's block off if you can and at least fight enough so he will think twice before going after you again.

In college and in some instances earlier, boxing was hailed as a manly sport. In this writer's personal history, training started in Canadian third grade. I still have a bronze medal won in the fifth grade.

Its popularity is confirmed by the enthusiasm of crowds attending organized fights at the Egan Center in Anchorage.

Medical science has been coming out of the shadows and now includes major studies affirming what we already knew — that professional football routinely includes concussions and a regular performer can all but guarantee  he will have brain damage, maybe severe and life-shortening brain damage, by the time he ends his career.

We have not heard the end of this since football players have not previously been encouraged to consider the concussion as more than an annoying interruption in the playing of the game even while the medical science was obvious — a bit like the cigarette's history.

Boxing is more explicitly organized around inflicting brain damage. What after all, is a more satisfying outcome than a knockout?

It is also true that public knowledge of brain damage and death have long attended boxing. Well, you say, the professional fighter knows what he is getting into.

Is that a sufficient excuse for not just tolerating, but celebrating a "sport" that, abstractly considered, is not that far off from dogfighting?

Have you heard of anyone with a wealthy or educated background pursuing a career in professional boxing? Virtually everyone who enters this profession started dirt poor and dreams of great wealth as well as fame.

That money comes in because the general public likes and permits combat with a mortal touch in human beings, as well as dogs. What if, for the gambling industry, Russian roulette was sport? They could make half a million by taking a one-in-six shot.

How long would we let that be legal? Professional boxing was a big deal when this writer was a boy; not nearly so much now. How long before America makes it illegal to pay people to take life-shortening concussions?

John Havelock is a former Alaska attorney general. He lives in Anchorage.

The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com.