Boxing

You don't have to be a mindless thug to be a boxer though the recently thugish British versions of the pugilist seem to be not only thugish but mindless as well. Not all boxers act in this unseemly way, brawling during a press conference after the match in the ring has already taken place. Here, for example, is a boxer who is anything but thugish or mindless: Vitali Klitschenko, WBC world heavyweight champion who, I discover, from an article he wrote today in The Times, is also a holder of a PhD and is presently leader of the Ukraine Democratic Alliance. Phew! Needless to say he deplored the "senseless" behaviour of the man he had just beaten in the ring and of the other British boxer, David Haye, and called for heavy penalties from the WBC (World Boxing Council). Maybe they will do something and maybe they won't; maybe they will say they deplore the behaviour but carry on allowing boxers before fights to snarl insults at their opponents and to push their (often ugly) faces up against their opponent's face.
Where is the gentleman boxer of old? The Tommy Farr, the Joe Louis, the Billy Conn, Gentleman Jim Corbett, John L. Sullivan? Nowhere to be seen nowadays. No, somewhere in the past the rot set in and the promoters encouraged bad behaviour because they believed the fans liked it.
I think the rot set in with the aoppearance on the fight scene of Cassuis Clay and his loud mouth. Not that he shouted obscenities at the cameras but he made his boasts almost obscene in their ugly delivery. He, like McEnroe, became experts in the art.... no, not art, there's something uplifting in art (often!).... they became experts in the technique of insult. None has ever apologised because they probably think they were behaving properly.
I recall Alistaire Cook in one of his broadcasts saying how great the indignation was in the USA amoung sports' journalists at McEnroe's dreadful behaviour towards officials at Wimbledom; many thought he should have been "brought home", they were so disgusted.
So, well done Vitali Klitschko, one of the old school, a gentleman of the ring.