Mark Keown

I don't get boxing at the best of times. Being of the Christian persuasion and believing that the human body is a gift from God as is life, and that the human mind is the centre of all that we are and experience, I struggle with sports which involve intentional desire to damage another person's head. Boxing's goal is to knock unconscious another person. This as we are regularly told by medical experts is bad for you and can cause long-term damage. One can argue that other sports like league, gridiron and rugby are similarly dubious. And there is an argument here as these sports involve physical domination. But the difference with boxing is that boxing involves damage to the brain! Whereas to do so in these other sports is an offense (although one can be forgiven for believing so sometimes!) So what do you do with Evander Holyfield? One week short of his 45th birthday and he goes into the ring again to fight 32 year old Sultan Ibragimov of Russia and not unsurprisingly loses...