Ban on Boxing
RICHARD GLOVER: We were talking a little earlier about all the brawls that broke out apparently, seemingly, around the country during that match, last night, between Anthony Mundine and Danny Green in Perth. Indeed, one person died during a brawl there. There were 13 hotels across Perth at which police apparently had to be called, and trouble was also reported in Adelaide, and in Queensland where fights broke out in Ipswich, Noosa and Brisbane, after pubs showed the match, live, on TV.
The question arises: is it something to do with boxing? Does boxing kind of give rise to the temperature, I suppose, among the fans and breed a culture of violence? Or is it a much simpler case of, if you ever get an event that causes so many people to go to pubs and stay there for so many hours, then you're going to get trouble, and it could be, you know, they could all be watching the ballet for all the difference it would make.
I don't know what you think about that, but if you've got a view, 1300 222 702. Maybe you went to a club or pub to watch it last night and would like to tell me how peaceful it was; or, indeed, if there was aggro, tell me about that as well. 1300 222 702 is our number.
Dr Choong-Siew Yong is Vice-President of the Australian Medical Association, joins us on the line.
Good Afternoon.
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: Good afternoon.
RICHARD GLOVER: Now, I know the AMA is against boxing, isn't it? That's the case, isn't it?
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: Yes. We've called for bans for boxing before. You know it's the only sport, now, in the modern day that depends on you causing physical damage to your opponent to win.
There's a lot of other sports where people get hurt, but it's not the main aim of the game. And when you think about the fact we've outlawed dog fighting, cock fighting, you know other sports where you want damage to occur to one of the two opponents in the game, we probably should do the same for boxing.
RICHARD GLOVER: I guess we've talked before about the effect on the competitors. What about the effect on the audience? Do you think there is one?
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: Well, I think, no doubt. You were mentioning before about sort of, you know, whether it was the pub scene or whether it was the sport itself, and it's probably a combination. You've got that combination of this is-- you know this a somewhat adrenalin-inducing kind of event, it's two blokes, you know, fighting each other, you've got all this other testosterone, all these other blokes in the pub and a lot of alcohol, so I think that's a pretty dangerous combination overall.
RICHARD GLOVER: What, you get a kind of copycat factor, do you?
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: You might get a bit of that, because you certainly see it in some other sports. I mean the most-- The best example of that is probably football, particularly soccer in Europe, where you do get incredible instances of mob violence after a big football match. Thankfully, we don't have that kind of culture in Australia. And this is pretty shocking that it's happened already here, and thankfully it's not that common an occurrence ...
RICHARD GLOVER: ... people argue that there's a copycat factor with other sports: for instance, you know, motor racing might cause people to speed afterwards. I don't know if you agree with that
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: Yeah, they've looked into that, and surprisingly enough there is a small, I think, but perceptible increase in car accidents after a Grand Prix event in the city. And it seems to be that people do, probably a bit unconsciously, they start speeding up, they start emulating Michael Schumacher and the rest.
And it seems to be a real phenomenon that you do get an increase in some copycat things after a large sporting event, and a high-profile one like that, or like the boxing match last night.
RICHARD GLOVER: Well, indeed, some people argue you can see it after films. You go and see a violent film in George Street, and coming out the teenage-- the young teenage males are sort of, you know, walking with their legs apart and their shoulders back as if they're Sylvester Stallone.
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: Yes, certainly, you don't know whether that's actually a reflection on the film-makers' craft, that they've been able to induce those sorts of emotions. You know certainly artistic works can induce strong emotions in people .... and, you know, fire rebellions and things, too.
RICHARD GLOVER: Yeah. Some people argue the opposite about all these things, both the movies and the speedway racing and the boxing: that it's all cathartic, that we go to these places to let others play out these emotions, and in fact we get them out of our system. It's a healthy thing, they say.
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: That's sort of the explanation for the gladiators in ancient Rome and so on. It's a bit of both, surprisingly, I think. For instance, there's been a lot of work done about, you know, how much TV violence might make children more violent or more aggressive, and it seems to be that a lot of exposure to this kind of stuff can kind of make it kind of seem more normal to people than it should be, and it becomes kind of more acceptable that the whole temperature of the community goes up as a result. So that's if you're exposed to sort of constant violence, either in reality or maybe even in the mass media.
RICHARD GLOVER: OK. Nice to talk to you. Thank you for your time.
DR CHOONG-SIEW YONG: That's a pleasure.
RICHARD GLOVER: Dr Choong-Siew Yong is Vice-President of the AMA.
Ends