Knocking people out in a boxing match a sin?

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aball1035

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I heard today that in boxing matches (or MMA, whathaveyou), a Catholic may win by points, but can’t go for the knockout.

Is that true?

If it is, would I have to hide my enjoyment for a good knockout when I see one to avoid giving scandal?
 
aball1035 said:
I heard today that in boxing matches (or MMA, whathaveyou), a Catholic may win by points, but can’t go for the knockout.

Is that true?

If it is, would I have to hide my enjoyment for a good knockout when I see one to avoid giving scandal?
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No. It is not a sin. If a catholic were to attempt to kill somebody or do them permanent harm then it would be sinful.
 
I sometimes watch UFC or StrikeForce fights and personally I don’t like how that makes me feel. I get “sucked in” and it makes me oblivious to what’s around me, makes me impatient and insecure. I remember in the mid 90’s when my older brother showed me fights with Royce Grazie , I was shocked and thought there was something brute-like and unholy about that. God gave us arms to build stuff, help others, feed people, hug people etc. not to do armbars, choke people, destroy people’s face and brains for money, prestige, fame, entertainment. GSP and some others seem like people with a certain morality, others look just plain mean. Frankly I’d be beyond shocked if I ever went to an UFC night and saw, say Father Corapi wearing his Roman Collar. What do you (I) have to gain from watching people beating the heck out of each other?
 
aball1035 said:
I heard today that in boxing matches (or MMA, whathaveyou), a Catholic may win by points, but can’t go for the knockout.

Is that true?

If it is, would I have to hide my enjoyment for a good knockout when I see one to avoid giving scandal?
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I think you will find a variety of opinions among Orthodox Catholic Moral Theologians on the subject of boxing…

(I do not know much regarding boxing…but I do know you can get very very messed up…brain damage at least in certain forms too many repeated blows to the head…)
 
It’s just a sport. Be concerned when it’s encouraged to kill them for sport.
 
Bookcat said:
brain damage is a grave injury…
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And it’s an injury which is generally caused by repeated blows. RARELY if ever will a single match result in brain damage. So while a catholic boxer could not deliberately try to strike blows to cause brain damage, he has no special responsibility NOT to strike blows at all when his own opponent has chosen, with advice from doctors and managers, to step into the ring against him.
 
promethius said:
And it’s an injury which is generally caused by repeated blows. RARELY if ever will a single match result in brain damage. So while a catholic boxer could not deliberately try to strike blows to cause brain damage, he has no special responsibility NOT to strike blows at all when his own opponent has chosen, with advice from doctors and managers, to step into the ring against him.
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Moral theologians differ here.
 
Injuries happen in contact sports. That’s the nature of it…

Anyone who actually plays for example football, boxing, or mixed martial arts knows that and runs the risk of getting injured.
 
rben20 said:
Injuries happen in contact sports. That’s the nature of it…

Anyone who actually plays for example football, boxing, or mixed martial arts knows that and runs the risk of getting injured.
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Tis the nature of injury’s here …

There is a big difference between a spranged ankle and brain damage.

Also the nature of the sport. At least one orthodox Catholic Theologian states that part of the problem with boxing is that one is intending the repeated blows to say the head…where as in other sports any injury is a side effect…

(I can see I think his points here…)
 
I don’t know if the Church has an official position on sports derived from fighting, but to me the engagement in a ‘sport’ like boxing reduces the participants to the level of brute animals. I personally find that an affront to human dignity and the gifts that God gave us. To me it seems reckless to engage wilfully in activity that damages the body and to be complicit in the damaging of others’ bodies. God did not put us on this earth to destroy each other in tests of physical prowess.
 
Bookcat said:
Tis the nature of injury’s here …

There is a big difference between a spranged ankle and brain damage.

Also the nature of the sport. At least one orthodox Catholic Theologian states that part of the problem with boxing is that one is intending the repeated blows to say the head…where as in other sports any injury is a side effect…

(I can see I think his points here…)
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The problem is that football results in more concussions and injuries every year than boxing does. They’re now looking at rules to penalize players thousands of dollars and remove them from games for hitting people in helmet on helmet collisions because the number of injuries is so high. Striking in football is not a side effect, it is the entire point of the offensive/defensive line, as well as for blockers.
 
DexUK said:
but to me the engagement in a ‘sport’ like boxing reduces the participants to the level of brute animals.
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I would say don’t watch boxing then. If you can’t look at people engaging in a sport without thinking of them as brute animals then that is YOUR issue. Boxers certainly don’t think of themselves as brute animals, nor do boxing fans.

I would suggest you take a gander at the movie “Cinderella Man” if you want to catch a glimpse into the humanity behind boxing (at least, in the early 1900s).
 
DexUK said:
I don’t know if the Church has an official position on sports derived from fighting, but to me the engagement in a ‘sport’ like boxing reduces the participants to the level of brute animals…
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Come on. First off that is your own opinion and second that comment is offensive toward boxers. They are skilled fighters and the only way you test your fighting skills is to fight other fighters plain and simple. Their talents are God given so let them use it.
 
rben20 I can’t let you say so much nonsense without calling you out on it. You could argue exactly as you just did except substitute fighters and fighting for “porn stars” and “sex performers” and that wouldn’t make pornography morally right or acceptable to God. I don’t want to provide the link here to a certain video as it’s too bloody and graphic but if you really think fighting is a gift from God and fighters have a right to exercise their God-given “talent” go to youtube and type “bad side of MMA”. Satan is apparently a master at deceiving but I would not dare to call it a gift or talent from God.
 
Robertanthony said:
rben20 I can’t let you say so much nonsense without calling you out on it. You could argue exactly as you just did except substitute fighters and fighting for “porn stars” and “sex performers” and that wouldn’t make pornography morally right or acceptable to God. I don’t want to provide the link here to a certain video as it’s too bloody and graphic but if you really think fighting is a gift from God and fighters have a right to exercise their God-given “talent” go to youtube and type “bad side of MMA”. Satan is apparently a master at deceiving but I would not dare to call it a gift or talent from God.
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Wow, this is a weird thing to have as a first post in what, 2 years, but…

How about, boxing is not intrinsically evil and fornication is? How about, boxing is not MMA? How about no, fighting really is a talent and a gift from God, since—again!—the mere use of force is not an intrinsic evil?

That said, of course, boxing can be an occasion of sin in a number of ways, but so can any form of physical exertion and any form of competition, therefore physical competitions doubly so.
 
Boxing and other fighting sports are about inflicting physical damage to one’s opponent, that’s the sole purpose of it. In football, unless it’s viciously planned and intentional, physical damage is “colateral damage” so to speak, it can happen but it’s not the end that football players are after. I agree my example (porn) was flawed but I was trying to get my point across using absurdity (i.e. being good at something does not de facto make it a gift of God, morally acceptable). OP’s original question was about knockouts in a boxing match but later asked what other Catholics thought of UFC. I think UFC is worse than boxing but both, IMHO, don’t qualify as godly sports. Welcome back BTW:p
 
Robertanthony said:
Boxing and other fighting sports are about inflicting physical damage to one’s opponent, that’s the sole purpose of it…I think UFC is worse than boxing but both, IMHO, don’t qualify as godly sports.
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I actually incline to agree somewhat, but in the opposite direction—I don’t like sport martial arts (and boxing really is a martial art) because I believe martial arts are for self-defense, not entertainment. Certainly the sparring one does in training for martial arts is fun, but so is going down to the shooting range: they are, however, both practicing for SERIOUS business that could result in people dying. I don’t really approve of purely “sport” shooting, either, though I’m far from being anti-gun. I just think combat, armed or unarmed, is not a sport, not a “toy”—it’s a tool, specifically a weapon, one of the few tools that’s best if one never has to use it. Still, one ought to know how, just in case.
 
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