‘The Report of My Death Was an Exaggeration’: The Many Sordid Lives of America's Bloodiest ‘Pastime’

Abstract

Pastimes are played. No one plays boxing. But for centuries Americans from diverse ethnic, racial and class origins have gathered to watch the spectacle of prize fights, and they have rewarded the best brawlers handsomely. For as long as it has been a spectator sport, boxing has weathered attacks by politicians, ministers, journalists, medical professionals, and a host of other critics. And it has survived largely unchanged, loosely regulated and baldly dangerous. The history of boxing is a history of tradition and persistence. But it is also a history of adaptation, technological changes and changing public tastes. Promoters have been some of the quickest to adopt new technology that can help build the drama and ultimately sell tickets to prize fights. Particularly when those bouts involve a popular and dominant heavyweight champion, throngs of fans have paid good money to consume this legacy of another era via the most current media innovations of the day. Few, if any, would call it their national pastime, but many will pass their time watching a blood sport of pre-modern origins