I was participating as a resource person at the Second Asian Convention on the Divine Mercy in the Diocese of Keningau, Sabah, Malaysia, when Bishop Jose Oliveros of Malolos, another participant, informed me that he had received a text message from a Filipino in Los Angeles, California. The message said that Manny Pacquiao had won against Mexican Erik Morales by knockout in the third round. I could imagine the jubilation of fellow Filipinos back home at the victory of one of our modern heroes.
While I do not begrudge Pacquiao followers of their high at the victory of their idol, I wish, however, to register my objection to professional boxing itself.
Pro boxing is an immoral sport. No human being, and especially no Christian, should participate in it or encourage it. It is immoral because it is inhuman. No one today would approve of the gladiator games where slaves or captives fought each other to the death. At one point, civilized people (the Romans) considered the sport good entertainment. People watched with suspense and pleasure at men hurting and killing each other. But today, only the most barbaric among us would still approve of such fights to the death.
Pro boxing is not as bad as the gladiator battles of the past, but it is also inhuman. In pro boxing, each boxer wants to hurt the other boxer and to knock him out if possible. Hurting the opponent is not incidental in boxing as it is in other sports. To hurt the opponent is the direct intention of each ring protagonist. And he is happy if he lands a punch that hurts his opponent. The crowd, for its part, encourages the fighters to hurt each other. And when the boxers are not aggressive enough the people egg them on to be more aggressive. The supporters of each boxer are happy to see the opponent of their boxer bloodied. They roar when their man lands punch after punishing punch to weaken and if possible, knock unconscious his opponent. In fact, once in a while, we read of boxers landing in the hospital, becoming invalids or even dying as a result of the brawl. Some who survive, like Muhammad Ali, suffer disabilities later on as a result of their boxing days.
Boxing does not humanize the boxers and the spectators. It dehumanizes them, and dulls their sense of compassion. It develops violent instincts in the human being. Mike Tyson once bit the ear of an opponent and was penalized for it. But when a person is asked to act like an animal in the ring, with the spectators roaring for blood, should it be surprising that a boxer like Tyson would act like a beast thoroughly?
It is regrettable that politicians who are known to be pro-life advocates should publicly idolize champion pro boxers. It is understandable, I know, because they can get political mileage out of it, but they should realize that they are negating by such open approval of pro boxing their pro-life stand. I do not think anybody in his right mind will describe pro boxing as pro-life.
It also made me sad to read that in one parish in Metro Manila, the Pacquiao-Morales fight was shown in a big screen in the parish and spectators were charged P150 each as fundraising for the parish?s projects. We have really sunk very low when we promote an immoral sport in order to raise funds for our parish projects. And when I was told that Mass was celebrated for Pacquiao before the fight, and another one after his victory, I thought that that was an abuse of the Mass. It is hard to think of God approving a pro boxing match, and taking sides in a professional brawl held for the big money. A priest-friend jokingly told me, the Pacquiao-Morales fight was really a demonstration of who was ?mas malakas? (more powerful), Our Lady of Guadalupe, invoked by the Mexicans, or Our Mother of Perpetual Help, prayed to by the Filipinos.
I hope that someday we Christians will lead the way to rejecting boxing as an un-Christian and inhuman activity. To say this at this time when so many of us look upon Manny Pacquiao as a hero, when there is such a dearth of heroes, may seem out of sync with the temper of the times. But it certainly is not out of sync with sound morality. May we see the end of pro boxing in our times, and may we Filipinos seek glory in other truly human endeavors.
