It is savage, brutal and often painful to watch. It is also, graceful, skilful and unbelievably brave. It is easy for detractors to cherry pick the elements they want and to call for it’s banning. These people are the very limp wristed safety first knee jerking and blinkered folks that ruin anything that harks back mankind’s brutal uncultured and purely survivalist instincts.

We are not far removed from the territorial primeval man that hunted, defended and fought their way through life. Language, art and writing has given us all a greater ability to communicate and to define our love, aggression and meaningful endeavours but at heart we are still a group of people that fulfil the same required roles of our ancestors.

We have fighters and defenders
We have hunters, we have gatherers
We have builders and home makers
We have inventors and thinkers
We have leaders and we have followers

Somewhere in the midst of our self-congratulatory rise to our faux civilised society we forgot some basic truths.

Man likes to win.
Man likes to feel bigger, stronger, better and more accomplished than another.
It is what drives us to succeed to be better than we thought we could.
It is what causes war, murder and destruction.
It is what drives art, music and invention.
It is what makes us human.

At some point every child looks at their father and thinks them the bravest and strongest man on earth. At some point every man questions how strong and brave he really is... some can answer the question, some hide from it and others run from it. But every single one asks themselves that question.

Boxers don’t hide from it. They face it and try to prove their bravery. Anyone that underestimates the courage, the gut wrenching raw and basic level of courage it takes to climb into a confined space and fight another man is very misguided. It is the fear of pain, failure, embarrassment and guilt rolled into one bloody package.

No one has to do it, but boxers do, they are able to do it. They take that scary but wonderful surge of adrenalin and think ‘I am the hunter’ not ‘I am the prey’. They might loose, they might win, but they will always know that they stood their ground and they fought.

I love boxing because it reminds me of what I really am, and I love the fact that I know I won’t run...