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President’s Blog: Bare-knuckle fighting – downsides barely need repeating
Friday May 30, 2025
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References to bare-knuckle fighting in the media are usually figurative, but literal bare-knuckle fighting is apparently on its way to Perth from the United States in the very near future, enabled by a covertly-made decision by the previous Sport and Tourism Minister to recognise its organiser as a sanctioning body under the Combat Sports Act.
Whilst the State Government denies the provision of any direct financial support, it has clearly paved the way for it to occur, and it is scheduled to occur at a State Government-owned venue. One has to wonder at its rationale for supporting this spectacle, which would seem limited to a one-off, very minor economic and tourism impact.
The downsides are so obvious they barely need repeating. We are in the grip of a domestic violence crisis and an epidemic of drug- and alcohol-fuelled street violence. Children film schoolyard fights for social media. Turning the act of bare-knuckle fighting into a “sport” sets an incredibly bad example for children and adults alike. The physical health of the fighters involved is also of concern. It is argued that gloved boxing is more likely to result in brain injury than ungloved boxing owing to the longer bouts and greater overall force enabled by the wearing of padded gloves, but when we are comparing degrees of intentional brain injury, perhaps we are making the wrong comparisons.
Further, with growing recognition of the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy from any sport involving intentional or unintentional head contact, and efforts from contact sports administrators to learn about and address this risk, why would we allow the spread of sports that would not exist without intentional head injury?
Should he choose to allow it to go ahead, we await a clear articulation of the public benefit of this blood sport from the Premier, to whom we have written on this matter.
