Neil Bramwell Speaks Out

SPORT and politics never mix so it would appear safe to assume the same applies to sport and religion.

Oliver McCall has a very distinct viewpoint on the issue: "Oliver is a warrior, a real warrior with God in my corner."

God, it seems, has forked out his £9.95 to watch the Night of the Champions.

And He will be rooting for the good of reformed drug addict McCall in his battle with the evil of Lennox Lewis.

God will, of course, be a busy man this weekend with five fights on the 24-hour Sky Sports bill.

Prince Naseem, though, would be foolish to bank on the Almighty's support after introducing an unholy element into his conflict with Tom Johnson.

"I'm fighting for the pride of Britain and the Arab world...this will be the mother of all wars," said the repulsively cocky Hamed. Flippancy aside, these attempts to lift this most basic of sports onto a higher plain are revoltingly distasteful.

Professional boxing is not about religion or even patriotism - it is about two thugs attempting to inflict physical harm on another human being in the name of hard cash.

Both fighters, however, did touch upon the true essence of the spectacle.

A boxing ring is a miniature war zone.

However, while we wince at television pictures from Bosnia and Angola, armchair fans ghoulishly splash out to feast their eyes on this horror show.

Relinquishing the moral high ground, I admit that I would be one of the first in the subscribers' queue.

That blind mass appeal is the reason boxing has survived as a legal activity despite all reasonable logic to ban the sport.

But inevitably, in the distasteful hype and glamour that swamps these showpiece nights, those arguments and the very real dangers of the sport are all but ignored.

It is difficult to imagine Naseem's head becoming any bigger.

But with each blow received on Saturday night his brain will be bashed against the side of his skull causing internal swelling.

Ask Michael Watson and Gerald McClellan the extreme consequences.

Can anyone, honestly, sleep comfortably having paid - and cheered - to see an athlete needlessly maimed...or killed?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.