By Jaime Estades: I humbly submit that politically, economically, and socially repressed people created the basic boxing one-two punch combination to the jaw because they were pissed-off at their oppressor’s agents, such as the landlords, bankers, police, rich relatives, tax collectors, and rich people’s apologists. Unfortunately, most of the time, the one –two combination and frustration of the oppressed are wrongly aimed toward their own class members, such as neighbors and co-workers.
When the subconscious graduates to the conscious through the realization of the contradictions of economic and social disparity, the aim becomes more intentionally directed at the upper classes. However, the highest classes steal and legalize the rebellion.
Imagine a conversation between two upper class men conspiring to protect themselves from a rebellion of working class fighters more than a hundred years ago:
“Let’s regulate this before they start hitting us! Instead, we should have them hit each other while we pay the poor bastards; that way we look like we care.”
“But how can we make money out of this?”
“We should sell all the tickets without giving a percentage to the fighters.”
“That is not enough.”
“We should also take 40% from the boxer’s purse as payment for marketing, location rent, gym, trainers, boxing gloves (without too much padding so we can make the fight more bloody and interesting), and organizing the fights for them. We should discount any travel, as well as meals.”
“What about doctor’s fee and pension?”
“Discount that from their purse too. We need health care and pension”
“Anything else?”
“That should do it.”
And, that is how professional boxing was created – by rich people who did not want to get hit but did want to be richer.
Boxing would be more popular today if people of the lower classes could fight upper class people. Imagine the millions of families who are victims of foreclosure, poverty, unemployment, and disenfranchisement — people who would give their last penny to watch such a fight. I propose to have a lottery of any ordinary working man to be selected to fight the lottery selection of any major Wall Street executive. I MEAN THAT’S A FIGHT!
A famous sport commentator in my native Puerto Rico stated (I am paraphrasing) on the evening before the fight between Tito Trinidad and Fernando Vargas, that he hated boxing because of the economic exploitation of the boxers and the unnecessary violence. He continued by stating that even though he hated boxing, he admired boxers as much or more than any other athlete because no other athlete sacrifices more than a boxer does physically, mentally, and economically, and no other athlete has the valor and courage of a boxer.
I would add that, more than any other athlete, the boxer identifies with the working class man and woman who fight day to day to make a living and feed their family.
After his commentary, for the first time, I saw boxing from a different perspective, not just as a sport. Most boxers cannot pay for a house at the end of their careers. Boxers are like every man and woman who gets up every day to make a living, feed their children, pay rent or mortgage, while sweating the boredom of alienation and exploitation.
To this date, at the end of every fight, I am as impressed with the million dollar fights on HBO and Showtime as I am with a Telefutura and ESPN 2 fight. In boxing, I am equally impressed with the victor and the fallen. I can’t say the same for other sports.
I love baseball and basketball with passion, but sometimes on TV, you see the losing players crying at the end of the final championship game. Indignantly, I get up and scream at the TV: “TRY BOXING, YOU CRY BABY!”