Leading Catholic magazine condemns boxing
A Jesuit-run magazine has condemned boxing, describing the sport as "a legalised form of attempted homicide", driven by "cruel" businessmen who see boxers as "money-making machines" In a six-page article, the latest issue of Civilta Cattolica (Catholic Civilisation) which came out on Saturday, points out that more than 500 men have died as a result of injuries suffered in the ring, in the last hundred years. Many more have been left severely injured. "If a defeated boxer doesn't die in the days following a match, he carries the signs of death on his body and face, and especially in his soul," the article says. Professional boxing is "a bloody and mortal game of gladiators", it says, adding that the sport "goes against the natural moral and divine principle of not killing". The magazine describes the public's fascination with a boxer's suffering "as merciless and inhuman". Recently American fighter Levander Johnson of a brain haemorrhage, just days after a bout in September. The article echoes the view of many medical organisations around the world who have called for much tighter controls, or in some cases an outright ban on the sport.