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1 - I'm 29.
2 - There is no dispute that there have been, and will be again, death's resulting from any martial art. However, I would struggle to find an instance in boxing were an unconscious man was pounded 14 times in the back of the neck as the crowd cheered and chanted for his death.
3 - I know that a boxer was only forced to go to the neutral corner after a knockdown in recent history, I think most people with some knowledge of the sport know about Dempsey's "Long count". But it is always the case that a man who was down could not be hit. You could hit as he got back to his feet, but not while he was sprawled on the floor and vulnerable - only when he was ready to rise and to some degree protect himself.
I do not have some fetish about people only being allowed to fight while upright, the point is that the core of MMA, the part that the element which thinks boxing is "not xtreme enough" adores, is when a man is knocked down and then pounded when he is vulnerable and unable to defend himself.
THIS is unmanly, this is an act of pure cowardice. I seem to have to keep repeating myself because some people dont seem to grasp what to me seems a quite simple principle. A sport that allows a man to be struck when he is down, when he is unable to defend himself - is overly brutal and unmanly.
This is why a man like John L Sullivan - drunkard, bare knuckle fighter sometimes - that he was can correctly be defined as a king of manliness, a heroic figure, an example to the youth and the men who follow his great legacy. And Roycie Gracey, or whoever else is simply a street fighter who is allowed to street fight in a ring. He may be talented, he may not be - Ive never seen him brawl - but I would not say he was 100% of a man.
Anyone who is skilled in combat (as a top UFC brawler must be) would have the opportunity to box, to fight in the supreme test of masculinity under the Queensbury Rules. To fight in a sport that does not allow an attack on a defenceless opponent.
Instead, he chooses to fight in UFC and punch a man in the head when he is down on the floor and not able to defend himself or even see the blow coming. Maybe his motive that he is not really skilled enough to be a boxing champion, but he is a good wrestler so he can make more money in UFC... its his choice, and he has to live with the reflection it casts on his character.
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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