[kirklancaster]

I took up boxing at 8 years old in a 'spit and sawdust gym above a barn - it was still well equipped though for those days - after dabbling in Shotokan for a while, and there is nothing wrong with my brain. (though some on here will disagree. )

Seriously, though, there is far less chance of being seriously injured through boxing than a lot of other sports.

Casualties in any sport will always happen in spite of the most rigorous of precautionary measures and the finest of Medical Provisions, but the most common cause of serious head injuries hails from boxers who continue boxing well past the date they should have retired, and boxers who abandon the twin disciplines of training and healthy living in favour of drink, drugs, and the bright lights, and who step into the ring in a far inferior state and condition that they should be in.

I love ballet, and once in awhile, a supremely gifted boxer will step into that ring whose footwork, grace, and elegance of movement is as moving and beautiful as any Sylvie Guillem or Darcy Bussell - and the young 'Black Gazelle' Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali is THE best of them all.

Some say that Ali's terrible Parkinson's Disease was caused by too many blows to the head, and if that is true, then it is because even he 'went on' for far too long.

All I know is, that Boxing GAVE Ali to the world.

By the way, one of my sons boxes - and he is very good at it.

Do I have palpitations watching him - No. His skill, that headguard and those big old overstuffed gloves protect him.