The Last Gladiators on Earth

In the Philippines, this very moment as I write this (7am sharp, January 22-Philippine Time)- boxing is the only conversation piece running among adults, especially the men. Why not? It's the much-anticipated match between their boy and Mexico's boy Erik Morales. Both are indeed fearsome fighters. (Don't ask me whom I'm rooting for, it's immaterial to the points of this piece.) Morales beat Pacquiao (Philippines' boy) sometime ago in that much-talked about controversial fight. (I am not saying I am rooting for Erik, but I think he DID win that match.) Now, would it be a repeat or revenge? That is the multi-dollar (peso?) question.

I don't know about you, but I think that boxing remains to be the most "savage" sport in the world. I am not saying I hate watching it. I find amusement and PRIMAL SAVAGE THRILL in watching boxing matches. To say that I "enjoy" it, well...I think is the wrong term. I enjoy watching chess games between the masters, even if it has zero physical violence in it.

I think that humankind has not fully eradicated the thrill and "hunger" for seeing two human beings kill (figuratively used of course in boxing) each other. For as long as we are just spectating and we are not the ones in there inside the cage/ring. Just like the era of the gladiators. If you ask me, there are only 2 differences. First, nobody gets killed in boxing. (Well, there were boxers who died of course, but I do not think the opponent purposely killed him- with malice- I think, almost all of them died at the hospitals, not on the ring's floor.) Second, there is no emperor (or whatever title he had) that would signal via his thumb whether to let the fallen warrior get killed OR spared. In boxing, it's Boxer A or Boxer B deciding and nobody else.

However, as far as the excitement, hoopla, hype, thirst, hunger, adrenaline-pumping, "savagery" of the audience of today's boxing are concerned, I don't know about you, but I doubt if anything has changed. We (yes, not you...we) are not that different from the spectators of Gladiator's Era centuries ago.

Just some thoughts. I do not think I would miss boxing if it gets banned all over the world. (Really) However, I think that if boxing disappears from the sports map say, 100 years from now...it would make all of us- a better, a higher-evolved species. There.

All that being said, I'm going straight to the Cable and make sure I don't miss THIS match. After all, I'll let the boys of the DISTANT FUTURE concretize my vision. (After that match, maybe I can just make a self-enforced prohibition in watching boxing events.)