Catholics and professional fighters

[crazydyl]

Hello All

I have been thinking about fighting for money and whether it would be correct to fight professionally as a boxer. I don’t think that it would be right to beat one of God’s creations in the head several times and possibly even kill that bein.

What do guys think? I couldn’t imagine Jesus beating people in the ring and I personally believe it to be wrong, but what do you guys think? Professional fighting is wrong?

I know Amir Khan, Muhammed Ali, Mike Tyson are/were muslim fighters and there is a devout jewish fighter that doesn’t fight on Sundays.

I am very physically fit and strong, so I would consider fighting to make money for God, but doing something bad to make money for God is not good like being a prostitute to fund a Catholic website would be wrong!

God bless

Dylan

 

[Rascalking]

I say go for it. There is nothing wrong whatsoever with being a Catholic and being a boxer.

Boxing is NOT wrong-it’s perfectly fine. Your goal isn’t (or shouldn’t be) to pummel the guy and beat the stuffing out of him for pure enjoyment or bloodlust. If that IS your goal, see a shrink. Please. Rapildy.

I love boxing. It’s my favorite sport second to baseball.

 

[JRKH]

Since you are asking for our viewpoints and not Church teaching, I will give you mine.
I must take the opposite view of Raskalking.

I say don’t go for it.
No matter how anyone dresses it up, boxing and other forms of fighting are not in conformance with the teachings of Christ. It also, in my view, provides way too many occasions for sin among those watching and those participating.

That is just my opinion.

Peace
James

 

[Cat]

Boxing is a sport.

I don’t follow it, but I’ve watched a little of it. From what I understand, you’re not allowed to beat someone in the head and possibly kill them. The ref would put a stop to it, and you might find yourself ousted from the ring, or even banned entirely. And of course, if you really kill someone in the ring, you might find yourself in trouble with the law.

I think you should give it a try, but go through a real gym and learn all the rules and strategies from an experienced boxing trainer. Boxing is not just a question of “fighting for money.” It’s a sport and you have to learn how to play it.

Also, I think that you might discover that you won’t make that much money by the time you join the gym, hire the trainer, retain a lawyer, etc. etc. Any sport takes a lot of money to learn and practice, and it takes a long time for that investment to pay off in earnings.

Since you’re strong and fit, perhaps you would have more luck and make more money doing work that requires physical strength; e.g., road crew, construction, hired hand, moving furniture, etc. If you specifically want to use your strength for God’s work, consider joining a mission where you build orphanages, schools, etc. in poor countries.

If you have an education, you could probably make money on the side working as a personal trainer for fat, flabby people like me! I’m paying a trainer $45/hour to help me flatten my stomach.

 

[armywife]

Have you seen “Cinderella Man”. There’s a good Catholic and a boxer, true story, too. It used to be fashionable to get dressed up in gowns and tuxes and go to a fight. But that’s when society was more formal anyway.

 

[Rascalking]

Have you seen “Cinderella Man”. There’s a good Catholic and a boxer, true story, too. It used to be fashionable to get dressed up in gowns and tuxes and go to a fight. But that’s when society was more formal anyway.

Jim Braddock was his name.

And I love your idea about going to boxing matches the way they used too…sounds great to me!

 

[crazydyl]

Since you are asking for our viewpoints and not Church teaching, I will give you mine.
I must take the opposite view of Raskalking.

I say don’t go for it.
No matter how anyone dresses it up, boxing and other forms of fighting are not in conformance with the teachings of Christ. It also, in my view, provides way too many occasions for sin among those watching and those participating.

That is just my opinion.

Peace
James

What does the Catholic Church teach about boxing?

I personally believe that it’s wrong.

 

[crazydyl]

Boxing is a sport.

I don’t follow it, but I’ve watched a little of it. From what I understand, you’re not allowed to beat someone in the head and possibly kill them. The ref would put a stop to it, and you might find yourself ousted from the ring, or even banned entirely. And of course, if you really kill someone in the ring, you might find yourself in trouble with the law.

I think you should give it a try, but go through a real gym and learn all the rules and strategies from an experienced boxing trainer. Boxing is not just a question of “fighting for money.” It’s a sport and you have to learn how to play it.

Also, I think that you might discover that you won’t make that much money by the time you join the gym, hire the trainer, retain a lawyer, etc. etc. Any sport takes a lot of money to learn and practice, and it takes a long time for that investment to pay off in earnings.

Since you’re strong and fit, perhaps you would have more luck and make more money doing work that requires physical strength; e.g., road crew, construction, hired hand, moving furniture, etc. If you specifically want to use your strength for God’s work, consider joining a mission where you build orphanages, schools, etc. in poor countries.

If you have an education, you could probably make money on the side working as a personal trainer for fat, flabby people like me! I’m paying a trainer $45/hour to help me flatten my stomach.

Yeah, I’m training to become an accountant and I was considering training people in the office after work haha I already help people in the gym and friends with a lot of advice with my 8 years experience.

 

[JRKH]

What does the Catholic Church teach about boxing?

I personally believe that it’s wrong.

I don’t know that the church has a teaching that would apply to whether boxing is a moral pastime or not.
The Catechism does say in para 1789 in **the section dealing with conscience **that “One may never do evil so that good may result from it”.

Perhaps it would be good if you reviewed the section linked above,

I would just ask myself what kind of thoughts are necessary to be a top notch, money making, boxer. Can you step into the ring and face your opponent with Love, or does it require a different set of thoughts and feelings in order to be effective?

If you personally believe, that is your conscience tells you, it is wrong then you should not pursue it.

Peace
James

 

[Cat]

Yeah, I’m training to become an accountant and I was considering training people in the office after work haha I already help people in the gym and friends with a lot of advice with my 8 years experience.

Good! Have you considered developing a business plan and pursuing this?

I think it would be best if you had some kind of certification or degree, but there are lots of people currently offering diet and exercise plans who have no training or education whatsoever and some of them are doing a good job. And there are people who have the education and certification and they aren’t doing a good job.

As far as I know, Peter Walsh has no real education in anatomy and physiology, or nutrition/food science, or even biology/biochemistry, but he has written an excellent book about diet and exercise. He motivates me because I look to him as a role model. And a lot of what he says is just common sense.

Sometimes, a trainer just has to be a good motivator and helper to those of us who can’t control our appetites and who can’t seem to get into the habit of calorie-burning, muscle-producing, heart-strengthening activity. Sometimes people like me who are overweight simply need someone who is already in good shape to serve as an inspiration to us. If you’re good at motivating people and you’re getting good results with your clients, then you might be able to create a great fulfilling career and make money, too!

 

[Jguerra]

Manny Pacquiao is a devout Catholic. I read in a sports magazine an article in which he paused during training for prayers. His coach hollered for absolute quiet in the gym, while Manny knelt for a few moments and prayed. When he stood up, the gym went back to business.

Boxing for sport is one thing. Boxing to purposely injure or kill someone is wrong.

Joe

 

[JRKH]

Manny Pacquiao is a devout Catholic. I read in a sports magazine an article in which he paused during training for prayers. His coach hollered for absolute quiet in the gym, while Manny knelt for a few moments and prayed. When he stood up, the gym went back to business.

Boxing for sport is one thing. Boxing to purposely injure or kill someone is wrong.

Joe

Please understand That I am not making any judgement on anothers beliefs here.

Look carefully at the bolded statement above and then ask yourself what the purpose of boxing, even boxing for “sport”, or any fighting is. Is it not to injure another? Do black eyes, split lips, etc not constitute injury?
Sure boxing is controlled and the object is not to kill, but the object is most definitely to injure the other guy more than he is able to injure you. In fact the object is to injure him to the point of loosing conscienceness if possible. Hence the venerable boxing term “wins by a knockout”.

Peace
James

 

[LilyM]

Please understand That I am not making any judgement on anothers beliefs here.

Look carefully at the bolded statement above and then ask yourself what the purpose of boxing, even boxing for “sport”, or any fighting is. Is it not to injure another? Do black eyes, split lips, etc not constitute injury?
Sure boxing is controlled and the object is not to kill, but the object is most definitely to injure the other guy more than he is able to injure you. In fact the object is to injure him to the point of loosing conscienceness if possible. Hence the venerable boxing term “wins by a knockout”.

Peace
James

Exactly. The point of the exercise is to win points, preferably by damaging the other guy’s brain so much with your punches that he temporarily can’t even stand up straight. Look at poor Muhammad Ali and tell me that it doesn’t involve injury! It’s widely known and acknowledged that his physical problems are at least partly caused by his boxing.

 

[Norseman82]

From what I’ve been following in the past few years regarding this subject, there seems to be a difference between professional boxing and amateur/olympic boxing. Professional boxing is done for money, and no head protection is worn, and this is normally done for 15 3-minute rounds. Amateur boxing/sparring normally does not have as many rounds (I do know that in Golden Gloves, the bouts are 3 2-minute rounds), and headgear is used. So amateur boxing poses no problem (with me).

For those who may not realize it, one of the prime early promoters of Golden Gloves (at least in Chicago) was the Catholic Youth Organization and Bishop Shiel (see page 233 of the following excerpt on Google Books):

books.google.com/books?id=JYOzRAae1nUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Sports+in+American+history:+from+colonization+to+globalization%22&source=bl&ots=A3Vy18oLuq&sig=PlxTWZI7lA4sx8ynCEiN4IE77to&hl=en&ei=UwydS_WtI4T2NcqwvOYN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

[JRKH]

From what I’ve been following in the past few years regarding this subject, there seems to be a difference between professional boxing and amateur/olympic boxing. Professional boxing is done for money, and no head protection is worn, and this is normally done for 15 3-minute rounds. Amateur boxing/sparring normally does not have as many rounds (I do know that in Golden Gloves, the bouts are 3 2-minute rounds), and headgear is used. So amateur boxing poses no problem (with me).

Well - remember tha the OP is considering it, “professionally”, that is, for the purpose of making money.
Also, while I am sure that using headgear is a good idea, I’m afraid that said headgear will not prevent the brain from “sloshing around” the head cavity. The shorter time frame would certainly reduce the cahnce for serious injury, but still - I guess I just don’t see the point.

For those who may not realize it, one of the prime early promoters of Golden Gloves (at least in Chicago) was the Catholic Youth Organization and Bishop Shiel (see page 233 of the following excerpt on Google Books):

books.google.com/books?id=JYOzRAae1nUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Sports+in+American+history:+from+colonization+to+globalization%22&source=bl&ots=A3Vy18oLuq&sig=PlxTWZI7lA4sx8ynCEiN4IE77to&hl=en&ei=UwydS_WtI4T2NcqwvOYN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

This does not surprise me at all. Nor am I trying to “inflict” my views on others. Just stating my opinion for the benefit of the OP.

Peace
James

 

[Jonatello]

i used to love boxing, i was a big fan for years and years, the amount of skill and cunning that can potentially be displayed is remarkable. then about 3 or 4 years ago, i realized how utterly counter it was to the very core of my conscience and the heart of Jesus and have disowned it completely.