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The Sweet Science of Boxing |
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Andy "Mayhem" Murcia |
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or, if you prefer: Women Who Fight |
 Christy Martin, left, pummels Sue Chase and continues her big money boxing career. |
Should women box?
Here are two radical views:
of TheColumnists.com
There was a time when the only rings in a woman's life were the ones in their ears and the ones guys slipped on their fingers--and maybe the ones they had to scrub off the bathtub after their men took baths.
But now women have a much wider choice of rings. They can wear them in their noses, for instance, or, if they're really wild and crazy women, in their private pierced body parts or even on their tongues.
And now they can even fight in them. That's right: Women have been invading the prize ring for the past decade in such great numbers that they even have women's boxing ratings, women's boxing magazines and women's boxing training camps.
Some men do not like this because it's unfeminine. Others don't like it because they like to consider women the fairer sex. Others don't like it because they're male fighters and they don't want to share the prize money.
But some men DO like it. There are those who get off on watching women beat on each other. They would like it better if the rules required the women to go naked while boxing. Still others like it because they think women are pretty good at it.
Then there are those who don't like it for one reason or other, but think it's only fair to let women wreck themselves if we already let men wreck themselves in public exhibitions of brutality.
To settle the controversy once and for all--one of the public services performed by TheColumnists.com--we decided to let two of our wisest guys vent their opinions on the subject. So, without further ado, here they are:
ANDY
MURCIA
Former Chicago cop & real-life tough dude
Husband of blonde bombshell Ann Jillian
Lifelong boxing fan
I’ll make this short:
Females have no place in boxing. There I said it.
If we are to teach our sons not to ever strike a lady--that we
should protect them instead--then what kind of message are we
sending these boys to see two women belting the hell out of each
other?
Worse yet are the more
recent "gender free matches” where a male fights a
female! This has became a movie theme already! Stop this craziness
now!
Women have two beautiful reasons not to box. They are called
“breasts.” Ask any woman who lost her breast(s) to
cancer and she will tell the lady boxers to respect their body
parts by staying out of the ring. How could ANYONE punch something
as lovely and exciting as a lady's breast? NOT ME! It’s
only my guess, but taking punches to the breast could lead to
a deadly illness in due time. WHY CHANCE IT? Call me a sexist
pig if you must, but God never made a pair I didn’t find
to be “a work of art.”
With deep thanks to my wife Ann Jillian, my eyes have seen the
glory and the art perfected. I don’t “punch” art.
I lovingly admire it.
RON MILLER
Former TV critic and boxing writer
Husband of brunette siren Darla Miller
Lifelong boxing fan
I didn't like the idea of female pro boxing when it got started because it smacked of a carnival freak show. The first women boxers I saw were untrained flailing machines. Pretty ones with nice bodies were matched against talent-free dumpy ones with fat butts. My first question was: Where's the mud?
But then they got better. I've seen some real stylists who obviously can box, punch and do it all. Christy Martin, who's made millions fighting mainly as a supporting attraction on televised championship fight cards, is a real fighter. She's no Ray Leonard, but she's a female Carmen Basilio. She gets in there and works. She hits hard and often--and she catches a lot of leather, but stands up to it well.
The women do a pretty fair job of avoiding illegal punches to the breasts. Like Murcia, I think a woman's crazy to risk getting hit there by somebody who really can punch. But I also think both men and women are crazy for offering up their faces and bellies for punches. It's no way to make a living. I hope I don't live long enough to see a punchdrunk old ex-fighting woman.
But if women want to pursue a sport that's legal for men to pursue, they have every right to do it. And if they're good enough at it, I'll pay my money to see it, even if I'm kind of ashamed of myself afterward.
© 2002 by Ron Miller and Andy Murcia. The Martin-Chase fight photo is by Tom Casino and is the property of Showtime.
TO READ ABOUT COLUMNIST MICHAEL JOHNSON'S FIGHTING DAUGHTER, CLICK HERE: RAPHAELLA
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