Combat Sports Bill 2008
I find myself in complete agreement with Mr Ian Cohen as I speak on the Combat Sports Bill 2008. The Christian Democratic Party accepts that it is important that all riders of motorbikes and bicycles wear helmets. There is a reason why we limit the activities of some people for their own good. For example, there is a reason why society has outlawed dog and bear fighting. There is a reason why we decide that cock fighting is not acceptable in our society. And there is a reason why gladiatorial combat ended. It was always regarded as a sign of a civilised society for a society to avoid the types of gladiatorial combat which ended in the injury or death of people.
In the State of New South Wales it was once possible to shoot one another in duelling, and there are historical examples in the first 25 years of this colony of people duelling and shooting one another.
There are reasons why the Marquis of Queensbury Rules were brought into being. There are reasons why bare- knuckle boxing was outlawed throughout the British Empire. There are reasons why the Australian Medical Association tried to stop boxing in Australia. Anyone who saw the pathetic state of that once great athlete Muhammad Ali at the opening of the Los Angeles Olympic Games will understand why it is important to protect the head area. I am also in favour of continuing the ban on women participating in boxing, although I have a great deal of sympathy for getting rid of sexes bans.
There are reasons why boxing has been regulated and kickboxing has been outlawed in some countries of the world. We now have regulated cage fighting on our doorstep. I have watched some of the films—which are available on the Internet—that have been sent to me to see what cage fighting involves. There is nothing that I have ever witnessed between human beings that is so violent and aggressive as cage fighting. It seems to me that the real problem is the mental state of the people watching it rather than that of the people engaged in it.
I grew up thinking that boxing and wrestling were very important, and my mother insisted that I should learn them properly. For years I attended the Young Men’s Christian Association [YMCA] and participated in both sports. To this day I still think the Greco-Roman type wrestling that we have in the Olympics is a very fine sport but I really shudder when I come to think of young people being involved in these very hard kinds of contact sports.
Is it a civilised society that permits this? Have we not grown beyond this kind of blood sport where we have socially approved violence? Why is it that we are applauding more aggression and violence? Why is it that we, as a supposedly intellectual community and as a group of people of legislative ability, want to support extreme combat sports? We all agree on the psychological influence that violence on television games has upon young people in particular, and yet a bill such as this is introduced. I want to place on record my own unease about all of this.
There is no way to make boxing and other combat sports safe. Contestants claim victory by physically injuring their opponent to the extent that they are unable to continue fighting, with the primary aim of rendering their opponent unconscious. Injuries in sport are common, but in most sports such as soccer, tennis, etc, injuries are incidental; in boxing they are deliberate.
A recent study of the health effects of boxing by the British Medical Association’s Board of Science has noted that injuries caused by boxing include:
Brain damage: the blows received during boxing cause the brain to move within the skull, damaging blood vessels, nerves and brain tissue.
Acute brain haemorrhage: this is the leading cause of boxing deaths.
Eye, ear and nose damage: in some cases boxing causes permanent sight and hearing loss.
The Board of Science has found that long-term effects of boxing on the brain are cumulative and may not show immediately after a match. Most signs of damage are more likely to appear towards the end of a boxer’s career or even after retirement. Stretched nerves fibre may recover after many weeks but severed nerve fibres do not repair. Ex-boxers are less able to cope with natural ageing of the brain or diseases of the brain and may be more likely to suffer conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism. This is evidently seen in Muhammad Ali being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Once the greatest, Ali is now in a state of vegetation. Moreover, boxer’s brains are smaller, surface grey matter is thinner, and fluid-containing ventricles enlarged because of the decrease in white matter.
There is a very interesting historical insight. In the year 314 AD in the Colosseum in Rome there were gladiators seeking to kill each other for the amusement of the crowd. An old man by the name of Telemachus stood up, raised his hands and cried, “In the name of Christ, stop.” Telemachus sought to separate some of the gladiators. One of the gladiators took his sword and struck Telemachus in the side of the neck, cutting through his artery. He fell to the ground and his blood soaked into the sand of the Colosseum. Someone then got up and left, and then more left, and dozens left, and hundreds left, then 20,000 people in silence moved out of the Colosseum. The fact is that never again in the Colosseum were such blood sports ever allowed.
If you go to the Colosseum today, you will find a giant wooden cross and underneath are the words, “In the spirit of this cross lies the hope of the world.” I do not believe we solve any social injustice by increasing violence.