bad news for boxing

http://www.examiner.com/fight-sports-in-jersey-city/former-cruiserweight-champion-bobby-gunn-to-go-to-battle-bareknuckle-brawl

bobby gunn, 21 (18) + 4 (3) + 1 whos record includes a 4th round TKO by adamek, and a 1st round KO by maccarinelli, is due to fight in a bare knuckle boxing fight against MMA carl thompson. gunn is also scheduled to fight for the lightly regarded IBU cruiserweight title. i dont think this is the kind of publicity boxers should bring to the ring. boxing is a highly regarded professional sport, and any assosiations with the bare knuckle world (legal or otherwise) should be avoided. boxing can be and is often critised for being a violent and dangerous sport, and certainly in the early days it was, a lot has been done to improve the safety of the sport, and now boxers safety is paramount, but it only got to this stage through a lot of changes and hard work from alot of respectable individuals over the years.

in england if a fighter were to die in a bare knuckle bout it would be murder, i dont know about the laws in arizona (where the bout will be held), but surely they can see the negative effects this could bring to boxing. gunn is still active in boxing so in my eyes has a responsibilty to protect the sports image.

To be honest Eddy, having seen Gunn in a boxing ring not sure he could do anything further to bring shame on the sport.

rowley wrote:To be honest Eddy, having seen Gunn in a boxing ring not sure he could do anything further to bring shame on the sport.

ROFL.

He did about 10 years of bareknuckle illegal stuff in Europe beforehand anyway.

i dont think boxers should be licenced if they going to partake in stuff like that, not the right message of what boxing is about

eddyfightfan wrote:i dont think boxers should be licenced if they going to partake in stuff like that, not the right message of what boxing is about

What is wrong with it? It can't be illegal (?) and it has nothing to do with 'professional' boxing? As far as boxing woes are concerned this isn't even on the shortlist.

Brave guy! Strange thing is , despite more bloodshed there is a train of thought that says that bareknuckle causes less brain damage than gloved boxing. Something to do with the weight of the glove rocking the head back that causes more brain damage.

Further to what Super D Boom has said, there were less reported deaths from bare knuckle rather than modern boxing per year. This is meant to be due to the fact that if you punch somebody in the face with a bare knuckle you end up injuring your own hand, therefore most bare knuckle fights constituted in more body shots than to the face.

yeah but there will have been many more official boxing matchs than bareknuckle matchs, so therefore more reported deaths.

it's not exactly the end of the world...