What is Professional Boxing for you?

By Gerardo Granados: Once a long time ago there was only boxing fans but now there seem to be different breeds of the same fan. There seems to be a battle between boxing fans on what professional boxing is supposed to be or to put it in different words it seems to be a competition with no intention to harm but just to outpoint. With valid arguments on what is and what casual fans can’t understand is the purpose of professional boxing.

With all due respect to the boxing purist and experts, I might be wrong but could it be that professional boxing is the same it was since his beginning, an organized show that portrays two fighters hitting each other with the main goal to physically beat one of the contenders.

Before the Queensberry rules started to regulate boxing there were simply no rules applied and as the time has pass it became better organized and regulated. Now it is a different story; the fighters preparation and professionalism and the boxing industry have reach a level that in the first days only a few might have imagine could be possible to accomplish.

For some boxing fans pro boxing must be a tactical boxing match between two skilled boxers and the winner will be the one who outpoints on the score cards.

For others it is a violent battle between two skilled fighters and the main goal is to utterly physically beat the opponent.

Have the reader seen Formula 1 car racing? Maybe NASCAR should be the proper question? My point is if you are a fan of car racing you must have started to watch without understanding a lot of it. But if you are a hard core fans then you know the history, names of the pilots and racing teams, the vast engineering aspects of the engine, tires, aerodynamics, etc., and also the politics related and the business side of the “sport”. But if you are just a fan you only need to know that it is fun to watch.
I believe most of the fans start watching a “sport” because it is fun to watch or because it is simply exciting to do so and they don’t care much about the rest of what I just wrote. These fans will pay the bills for the professional sport so it will become a lucrative “business” and as the customer at a store he will decide which product is worth to pay for and which one has the quality that he prefers.

I wonder if the main goal of professional boxing is to entertain or if it is necessary to learn all about it to have fun. I don’t believe that in the beginning people gather to watch a boxing fight hoping they would get to see a great skilled tactical boxing match. As pro boxing evolved the boxing fans became more demanding but the essence of pro boxing never leaved from the fans taste. For a very long time the Roman Gladiators entertained the masses and pro boxing might be a descendent from that show because violence is natural for almost every human being in this planet.

I enjoy both styles but I prefer to watch a Provodnikov vs. Alvarado fight instead of the highly effective tactical Wladimir Klitschko. But if I was to engage a bigger, faster and younger opponent I would choose to box him just as Guillermo Rigondeaux did to Nonito Donaire.
Maybe there is no wrong or correct answer to the question. Maybe it is in our instinct to be violent. Or could it be that the differences on the boxing taste adds more to the table instead of make us apart. So, what is professional boxing for you?