8:01 Guest was me.

Here it is again, in case Guest post does not survive:

Boxing is not everyone's preferred sport, for many reasons. Personal reasons for liking or not liking anything are an individual choice, and these are never wrong for that person.

Nauseating?:
I suspect if you don't like to see blood, or folks being subjected to punches, boxing is obviously not for you. And, it may indeed seem cruel and nauseating for som,e, even many to watch. But, there is other sports that qualify high in these categories. (Maybe these are not for you either).

Primitive?:
The concept of fighting is indeed primitive. But, some form of fighting is also a major part of many other sports, if you have an open mind to make a list. It is even encouraged in some "non-fighting" type sports, like hockey. Some (or many) of these sports have cleaned up their act, and put in measures to better protect participants.

Cruel?:
Since people voluntarily participate in boxing, the word cruel is an odd choice of words, IMO. A good question is has the sport gone far enough to protect the participants from injury? It is likely more complex to do so where fighting is the main goal. With that in consideration, it has seemed very complex to clean up injuries where fighting is not the main goal of the sport, like in Hockey.

A good question is, ""has boxing gone as farther in protecting participants as other fighting sports, such as MMA, martial arts"?
I know that changes has been made. But, I feel they should go much farther in professional boxing to protect participants.

What seems to be a problem with the sport is who controls it and makes the rules. This sport seems to be filled with fairly "shady" figures at the top. I suspect the problem lies there. Government does have some involvement in developing the rules in some locations. But, I suspect this involvement is very loose.

Some folks seem to slip innuendo into this discussion, disguised as "fact", that boxing rates high as a dangerous sport. I suspect like many sports, there is significant case of injury and occasional death. Many sports are definately less dangerous. But, not all by any measure.
Some injuries are likely difficult to determine, like with football. I also suspect participants and the organization does not go out of its way to track long term injuries. So, why not put forward existing factual evidence of boxings position among dangerous sports, among the other dangerous ones? IMO, this would make the discussion more interesting and less emotional.