Julie Bindel does boxing

[Gnome]

boxing is a way out of a society that see's people going off the rails, introduces them into some kind of discipline and gives them a goal to achieve.

I got into boxing because when I was about 10 I was jumped and beat up by 2 older kids, my mums fella at the time decided I needed to learn to protect myself. I trained in the same gym as tony oakey but gradually faded away to concentrate on football and ended up being offered a trial with a non league academy who were producing players often, got accepted but chose the forces.

I don't think boxing exploits anything, society can be cruel. some people decide to go down the boxing route, others the football route, others just stay doing what they do. how many stories have you read of boxing turning someones life around? from amatuers to world champions. when people are lost they will find solace in something and for some its boxing, for others its acting.

this woman needs to be taken to one of the amateur gyms like repton,heart of Portsmouth,the rotunda to see what work boxing is doing with people who live in these working class cities and how they are making themselves better people

Something tells me she is more of a Kids Company, aromatherapy-for-the-mites, give-the-kids-cash-in-an-envelope-they-won't-spend-it-on-drugs-I-am-sure kind of person.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

The problem with her article is it is a pure counter attack because Fury has - she felt - attacked her community.

I doubt she gives two shits about boxing or boxers and if Fury hadn't opened his trap, would have bothered to have written
this article. I wouldn't worry about her writing another boxing article unless it to to praise Orlando Cruz.

Saying that, there is plenty wrong with professional boxing. Coco has stated this (and he knows more than most) and I tend to agree, and in countries where there is more wealth equality, the less popularity boxing has.

Despite the facts about health concerns, professional boxing is in shit state, and probably the only sport where it is acceptable to bring in opposition who isn't there to 'win' and the knowledge of this practice being known to all beforehand (including paying spectators).

[iamasadlittleboy]

The problem with her article is it is a pure counter attack because Fury has - she felt - attacked her community.

I doubt she gives two shits about boxing or boxers and if Fury hadn't opened his trap, would have bothered to have written
this article. I wouldn't worry about her writing another boxing article unless it to to praise Orlando Cruz.

Saying that, there is plenty wrong with professional boxing. Coco has stated this (and he knows more than most) and I tend to agree, and in countries where there is more wealth equality, the less popularity boxing has.

Despite the facts about health concerns, professional boxing is in poo state, and probably the only sport where it is acceptable to bring in opposition who isn't there to 'win' and the knowledge of this practice being known to all beforehand (including paying spectators).

Strange how Japan goes again the inequality argument whilst also typically getting HUGE TV figures, Germany also has relatively low inequality with a solid boxing following.

Maybe the countries where boxings following has dwindled are those countries where opponents brought in to lose are common place (rhetorical thought) or where pricing and pay has forced the hand of fans, managers and participants

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Strange how Japan goes again the inequality argument whilst also typically getting HUGE TV figures,

Japan has a culture of martial arts, so yes, exception no.1 - and boxing losing ground massively to MMA - in fact MMA has more or less killed off boxing in South Korea.

Germany also has relatively low inequality with a solid boxing following.

It is about the same as the UK, actually. Lots of people are surviving there on a 1000 or so Euros a month, you might be thinking of pre 1990 West Germany.

So, you have one country.

Maybe the countries where boxings following has dwindled are those countries where opponents brought in to lose are common place (rhetorical thought) or where pricing and pay has forced the hand of fans, managers and participants

Yes, I agree with that, like I have said, boxing is its own worst enemy, that and the emergence of MMA.

[iamasadlittleboy]

Was taking the Germany inequality stats from a UN thingy used here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... e_equality

Which suggests that inequality is about half of the UK's.

Ukraine has a low one and a growing boxing culture (certainly not huge but growing following amateur successes)

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Was taking the Germany inequality stats from a UN thingy used here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... e_equality

Which suggests that inequality is about half of the UK's.

But the UK has very poor income equality for a first world country, fair enough, it was me who made that comparison
but lots of poor Germans on shit money. And even if we accept that Germany has decent income equality (it doesn't,
and nowhere near as it used to when it was West Germany) it is interesting to see how many actual ethnic Germans
make up their boxing elite. Out of the top twenty in the boxrec rankings, three to four are actual ethnic Germans which
might marry up to the consensus that it is a sport that is marginalised by class structures.

Ukraine has a low one and a growing boxing culture (certainly not huge but growing following amateur successes)

Lots of poor people in the Ukraine, it just doesn't have a super rich elite like Russia does therefore has more income equalility.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Most boxers play on the bad boy image, and pander to the stereotypical image of rabid thug with a cauliflower brain

at least she could have made the effort to get the terms right

I'd imagine that was a deliberate play on words.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Strange how Japan goes again the inequality argument whilst also typically getting HUGE TV figures,

Japan has a culture of martial arts, so yes, exception no.1 - and boxing losing ground massively to MMA - in fact MMA has more or less killed off boxing in South Korea.

Germany also has relatively low inequality with a solid boxing following.

It is about the same as the UK, actually. Lots of people are surviving there on a 1000 or so Euros a month, you might be thinking of pre 1990 West Germany.

So, you have one country.

Maybe the countries where boxings following has dwindled are those countries where opponents brought in to lose are common place (rhetorical thought) or where pricing and pay has forced the hand of fans, managers and participants

Yes, I agree with that, like I have said, boxing is its own worst enemy, that and the emergence of MMA.

Living costs are typically lower than in the UK however, especially housing. Berlin sadly has gone the way of London I hear, private investors buying up property, pushing rents up massively. When I was there about 6 years ago, a 1 bed flat in the trendiest part of berlin was 650 euros a month.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Living costs are typically lower than in the UK however, especially housing. Berlin sadly has gone the way of London I hear, private investors buying up property, pushing rents up massively. When I was there about 6 years ago, a 1 bed flat in the trendiest part of berlin was 650 euros a month.

Germany has lower housing costs than the UK, that is true, I have been thinking about this though and a lot of European countries that were boxing hotbeds - Spain in the 60's and 70's, Italy, France - boxing has died down a lot. TVE (The Spanish national carrier) banned boxing from their airwaves in the 1980's and all those countries have high income inequality but less and less people are partaking in the sport. Are there any countries where boxing is truly thriving and growing even bigger? The Philippines? Indonesia? Mexico?

[iamasadlittleboy]

Indonesian boxing isn't doing well due to TV issues, despite a wave of promising youngsters (Zoda, Monabesa and Palulu), South Korean boxing appears to be waking from a slumber-but their most notable fighter is now in the west...

[veriton]

Most boxers play on the bad boy image, and pander to the stereotypical image of rabid thug with a cauliflower brain

at least she could have made the effort to get the terms right

I'd imagine that was a deliberate play on words.

i dont think so...how is it a play on words? if its a stereotypical image then its a cauliflower ear, simples. i think she doesnt know what she is talking about.

[jamesmcdonnell]

at least she could have made the effort to get the terms right

I'd imagine that was a deliberate play on words.

i dont think so...how is it a play on words? if its a stereotypical image then its a cauliflower ear, simples. i think she doesnt know what she is talking about.

You honestly think that a professional journalist isn't going to be familiar with the term cauliflower ear?! Stroll on. She's probably done a degree in English at the least, and no matter how shite a boxing journalist she is, she's still going to be au fait with English vernacular. Cauliflower ear is common parlance, it's so obvious it's a deliberate play on words, and on the phrase 'cauliflower ear' the implication being that fighters are thick or brain damaged.

[veriton]

if that was the case then she wouldnt have said "stereotypical image" and then said something that wasn't even a genuine term, let alone stereotypical.

either she got the terms jumbled up or, as you think, she doesn't know how to write a sentence properly. i'm being kind in believing the former.

[reggaereggae]

Didn't the Grauniad once decide not to report on boxing as it was 'barbaric / exploitative'? I think in the 1990s.... Or maybe it was the Mirror

[Horse]

Julie Bindel.

England’s most influential radical feminist was asked whether she believes “heterosexuality will survive women’s liberation”:

It won’t, not unless men get their act together, have their power taken from them and behave themselves. I mean, I would actually put them all in some kind of camp where they can all drive around in quad bikes, or bicycles, or white vans. I would give them a choice of vehicles to drive around with, give them no porn, they wouldn’t be able to fight – we would have wardens, of course! Women who want to see their sons or male loved ones would be able to go and visit, or take them out like a library book, and then bring them back.

I hope heterosexuality doesn’t survive, actually. I would like to see a truce on heterosexuality. I would like an amnesty on heterosexuality until we have sorted ourselves out. Because under patriarchy it’s sh–.

She's a clown.

She says plenty of other wacky stuff as well: http://theothermccain.com/2015/09/06/gu ... d-of-camp/

[Boxerbeetle]

Didn't the Grauniad once decide not to report on boxing as it was 'barbaric / exploitative'? I think in the 1990s.... Or maybe it was the Mirror

Yeah I'm pretty sure that was the Guardian, possibly following the Benn-Mcclellen fight?

[Stevieb8006]

Julie Bindel.

England’s most influential radical feminist was asked whether she believes “heterosexuality will survive women’s liberation”:

It won’t, not unless men get their act together, have their power taken from them and behave themselves. I mean, I would actually put them all in some kind of camp where they can all drive around in quad bikes, or bicycles, or white vans. I would give them a choice of vehicles to drive around with, give them no porn, they wouldn’t be able to fight – we would have wardens, of course! Women who want to see their sons or male loved ones would be able to go and visit, or take them out like a library book, and then bring them back.

I hope heterosexuality doesn’t survive, actually. I would like to see a truce on heterosexuality. I would like an amnesty on heterosexuality until we have sorted ourselves out. Because under patriarchy it’s sh–.

She's a clown.

She says plenty of other wacky stuff as well: http://theothermccain.com/2015/09/06/gu ... d-of-camp/

She looks like Derek branning

[Twinkle Toes]

I hesitate to click on Guardian links, that paper is as bad as the daily mail in my opinion - Of course it does depend on which side of the fence you lean on.