Start of an amateur boxing match, Rayne, Louisiana. 1938. Photographer Lee Russell. / New York Public Library (CC0)
You can admire athleticism while also abhorring a sport. Writer Joyce Carol Oates once called boxing “America’s tragic theater.” Boxers die in the ring. Two of them — Maxim Dadashev and Hugo Alfredo Santillá — died just recently.
In light of these recent boxing tragedies, Charles Monroe-Kane and Steve Paulson are grappling with the ethics of boxing. It’s a debate that’s probably going on in a lot of places and will – unfortunately – continue.