Boxing is famously sleezy. Much more so than any other organized sport. It was corrupted by the gambling, the thrown fights, the dirty fighting. There was so much money involved, and so much to be gained by exploiting people, sending them out hurt, cheating, tanking etc. Other sports have had their scandals, but knocking somebody gives them a concussion and brain damage over time.

Doesn't the sleeziness in boxing speak more to the promotors, trainers, money men, etc., than the fighters?

Brain damage and death have a bad habit of showing up in professional boxing

But that doesn't make it corrupt, does it? The stakes are higher, but the game -- is that different?

If all I knew about the guy was that he was a boxer, I'd be significantly more wary than if he were an actuary.

Obviously I'm terribly biased, and know many more fighters (albeit most amateur) than actuaries, but ... no. I don't think actuaries are any nicer than fighters, by definition, or any less likely to treat my loved ones like crap (physically or mentally). Considering that the fighter knows exactly what happens when he hits, a nice fighter is less likely to think it's no big deal, as compared to someone who knows less.

Doesn't the sleeziness in boxing speak more to the promotors, trainers, money men, etc., than the fighters?

Exactly! And in fact, works well with the Schmeling -- he was nice enough -- it was the other people that had something to gain that were craptastic.

Fighters are a different category, in my head, than boxers.

Actually, I was talking about the sport as a whole, but yes, the sleaze tends to start where the money is and trickle downward. I think there has long been organized crime involvement in boxing -- and subsequent blurring of lines, where boxers end up as "enforcers", etc. -- whereas you don't hear about Don Corleone hiring an ex-baseball player to be his bodyguard.

It's got to suck to be a boxer, I should think. The only romance in it is the doomed, Jim Thompson kind of romance.

Fighters are a different category, in my head, than boxers.

I was using fighters as a larger category, of people who beat other people up, in organised scenarios.

The ones I've known who've been boxers haven't been significantly different from those that weren't, but I was keeping it large to make it more abstract.

you don't hear about Don Corleone hiring an ex-baseball player to be his bodyguard.

He should totally hire ... damn! I forget his name. Big guy, Florida I think, major steroids.

And krav.

And krav.

Be your own bodyguard!

...that's what the ads tell me, anyway.

JOSE CANSECO!!! Corleone should hire him!

whereas you don't hear about Don Corleone hiring an ex-baseball player to be his bodyguard.

Well, I think that may have a lot to do with baseball being a non-contact sport (ostensibly). It may not be the Godfather doing the hiring, but ex-NFL players often end up working as professional body guards.

Would that it were otherwise - it would make baseball a more interesting game if it was full contact, although I suspect that the players' careers would be a lot shorter.

Fondly remembering a Mad magaizne piece on Basebrawl.

"At first I thought ultimate robot fighting was real, like professional wrestling. But now I know its fixed, like boxing."

t /Futurama

Sadly, that is all I have to contribute to this discussion. Except that I have never bitten an ear in anger.