Extreme Fighting

I remember a time - not all that along ago - when everyone knew who the heavyweight boxing champion of the world was. Even non-boxing or sports fans. It was akin to knowing who the President of the United States. It was one of those factoids that everyone simply knew. Nowadays my guess is hardly anyone other than hardcore boxing fans know a fella named Andy Ruiz, Jr. of Cuba is the champ as recognized by the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organization and the International Boxing Federation. (A guy named Deontay Wilder of the US is heavyweight champ, according to the World Boxing Council.) Full disclosure: I had to look up the name of the current champ(s).

These days professional fighting is not like it used to be. It is not an exaggeration to say it is much more extreme. Kicking is allowed. Hitting an opponent while they are on the mat is ok, too. Even professional wrestling at carried out at a far different level with a lot more acrobatics and spectacular costumes and theatrics. Mind you, it is not my intent to criticize this new reality here as I readily acknowledge professional fighting for men and women seems to be very popular at present. Why within the past few weeks even the President of the United States attended an evening of extreme fighting. By any standards that is not a small thing.

I mention all this as I see a comparison between the current state of professional fighting and what I will call public communication. The world of public communication is in the form of commentators on television and radio and many of the guests who appear on their various programs. The hosts, generally, seem to be louder. Many of the guests seem to have no problem talking over each other to drive  home their points. Even name calling is not totally "out of the blue" when it comes to the public jousting that occurs on our airwaves. The similarity between professional fighting and public communication is not a good thing, at least for those of us who enjoy the public communication programs. Ideally, they should enlighten and raise one's level of social conscious, not thrill in the way an atomic knee drop might.