Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Mike Tyson v Roy Jones Jnr

BOXING provides an abundance of excuses to climb into the saddle of your moral high horse.

It is, after all, the back alley of sports, where decency is a midget in comparison to the indecency that too often predominates — this the product of a culture in which greed routinely outweighs honour by a factor of a hundred and more. 

Perhaps, though, the moral desert which boxing occupies is central to its fascination in an ever more censorious world in which to put a foot wrong is to suffer condign punishment.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Floyd Patterson
Men’s boxing / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

When Patterson and Liston met in the ring in 1962, it was more than a title bout — it was a collision of two black archetypes shaped by white America’s fears and fantasies, writes JOHN WIGHT

Cus D'Amato (right) with Floyd Patterson in August 1957
Men's Boxing / 17 January 2025
17 January 2025
JOHN WIGHT writes on legendary boxing trainer and philosopher, Cus D’Amato
Jake Paul lands a left to Mike Tyson during their heavyweigh
Men’s boxing / 22 November 2024
22 November 2024
JOHN WIGHT reacts to last weekend’s bizarre spectacle between the veteran boxer and the upstarting social media influencer in Dallas, Texas
Mike Tyson lands a left to Jake Paul during their heavyweigh
Men’s Boxing / 17 November 2024
17 November 2024