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 Women's boxing a sick athletic cartoon
Posted: Thursday September 09, 1999 06:12 PM
One of the saddest pieces of news I read in the paper this week was a little note in the back of the sports pages that 21-year-old Laila Ali, the youngest daughter of Muhammad Ali, is going to make her boxing debut on October 8th in Verona, New York. Laila Ali should -- literally -- have her head examined. What is she thinking? Is she thinking at all? If she were a man this would be a terrible career choice, foolish, an attempt to cash in on genetics and a famous name in a grim, unforgiving business. As a woman, the choice is ridiculous. Women's boxing is a sick athletic cartoon, carrying all the risk, but not the possible pot-of-gold payday. Women's boxing is the darkest back street in all of sport, an invention of voyeurism and violence, nothing to do with equal rights at all. In this same week, the Journal of the American Medical Association released a report on head injuries among athletes. The report warned of the effects of concussions during violent games, citing long-term damage to cognitive thinking. Headers in soccer were regarded as violent, dangerous moments. Headers in soccer! What about uppercuts delivered straight to the chin? If Laila Ali somehow missed this report, or paid no attention to it, she at least should do some research on her own. She should listen to the halting, stumbling words of the men who fought against her famous father two decades ago. Or she should talk to her famous father, himself. Or just watch him try to walk across a room. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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