The Sweet Science

A couple of days ago my friends were making jokes about boxing, saying it was just two men hitting each other. I stated that boxing is 'The Sweet Science' for a reason and it is no where near that primitive. However regardless of my arguments about the ring intelligence of fighters and the way that some fighters can adapt on the fly, I could not justify to them why boxing is called 'The Sweet Science'.

So question to you all, why do you call boxing 'The Sweet Science'?

I'm not too sure, i can only remember Lennox Lewis going on about it all the time. You obviously get different types of fighters with some sticking to purely boxing letting the KO's come if they come.

Because it's the most basic and elemental sport of them all. Not a sport which is overly reliant on technology, not a sport where you can make a substitution if things aren't going your way, not a sport where team mates can get you out of a hole.

To me, it's the 'sweet science' because it defies simple logic; fights aren't meant to be pretty from the outset. And yet a professional boxer can make violence a real treat to watch. On the flip side, it's just as satisfying to see a gifted boxer using his intelligence to win; slipping, blocking, parrying and countering punches, for instance. It has such a mix of styles and characters, so much history etc.

Very much the sweet science to me.

Always hard to explain to non boxing fans how it is the sweet science. They will sit and watch two guys slug it out but they have no appreciation for guys like Mayweather and Whittaker and find them dull.

Teddy Atlas always says the ring is the most brutally honest place in the World and it shows you right into a mans heart and what he has about him as a person. I tend to agree with this outlook regardless of the type of fighter.

The sweet science can be so broad in terms of boxing. From timing a counter, blocking a shot , head & feet movement it can be used in any of these.

My personal view is that the sweet science is the ability to turn simply two guys slugging out into an art form that people all over the world admire. Boxing takes skill heart & determination , it certainly isn't just two men hitting each other.

If I were you I'd show your friends the fights between SRL/Hagler/Duran/Hearns this will show them 4 different styles but at the same time showing the sweet science in all of them.

Watch Duran -cuevas for a master piece, the uncompromising savage uses a masterful display of an aggressive skilled defense against a brutish puncher and wins with ease. thats just one, if they watch boxing long enough they will understand. Its rather difficult to define for people who dont follow boxing because its something you must see for yourself but you can show some of the most obvious examples, ali, Tyson, Mayweather in slow motion.

Show them Hearns vs Hagler and tell them to watch for Hearns leaning back on the ropes under a barrage of punches from Hagler just to make space to get his shots off. It make look like a war but that was 2 highly talented boxers going at it in a clever manner.

Probably shouldn't have used the word clever. Not really a phrase that fits a man who trades with Hagler when he has a chin like Hearns did!