The Bioeconomics of Sport and War" examines Muhammad Ali and Idi Amin Dada as two strikingly different yet revealing case studies in what he calls the “bio-economics” of sport and war. Through a boxer and a soldier, respectively, both men became powerful international symbols who embodied intersections of race, class, sex, technology, and culture.

The authors begin by reflecting on their work with Filipino amateur boxers, many of whom come from modest or impoverished backgrounds. Boxing, for most, is not a hobby but a pathway to economic survival and a possible escape from hardship. Unlike athletes in more privileged contexts, very few Filipino boxers have college degrees or vocational training.

Bill Richmond (1763–1829), known as the Black Terror, was the first Black prizefighter to gain major recognition in Regency England. Born into slavery in Staten Island, New York, he was freed as a teenager and taken to England. There, he was educated and apprenticed, but it was through boxing that he left a revolutionary legacy.

The book attempts to link cultural changes in Mexico to prominent boxers at the time and how both take from and contribute to each other. For instance this time period experienced stages of high nationalistic sentiment (political idea of high devotion to the state and its culture) and the film 1946 Campeón sin corona (Champions without a crown) drew heavily on Rodolfo Casanova’s life in order to build an idea of Mexican masculinity and national pride, furthermore during this

As a Catholic priest takes part in a historic amateur boxing tournament, the article discusses both the feelings of many Catholics who deem the sport as innately immoral and O'Halloran’s own feelings regarding the positives that boxing brings; discipline etc.   

Born in East Los Angeles to Mexican parents, Oscar De La Hoya carried the expectations of two worlds.

Leger Grindon’s Body and Soul: The Structure of Meaning in the Boxing Film Genre treats boxing films as a distinct American genre. Rather than simply cataloguing fight scenes, Grindon reads these films as a cultural grammar that dramatises core tensions in American life. His analysis reveals that the ring serves as a public stage where private and national conflicts unfold.

This piece examines Paul Hewitt’s article "Physics in the Sport of Boxing – A Personal Story." Hewitt reflects on how his early experiences as a young boxer helped him understand the physics of motion, energy, and timing. He later used these insights in his teaching, showing that science becomes more meaningful when connected to real-life experiences. His story demonstrates how boxing teaches efficiency, awareness, and discipline, and how sport can make scientific ideas more

Emmanuel Akyeampong’s “Bukom and the Social History of Boxing in Accra” (2002) traces the origins of boxing in Accra to the Ga people’s precolonial martial traditions. He shows how communal fighting (asafo atwele) once served as a path to citizenship and belonging, later evolving into modern boxing under colonial influence.

Kurt Campbell’s essay “To Think as a Boxer” uses Marco Cianfanelli’s Johannesburg sculpture Shadow Boxing to explore how boxing became both a metaphor and a practice that shaped Nelson Mandela’s political life. The work draws on a famous 1950s photograph of Mandela sparring, but Campbell shows that the meaning runs far deeper than a striking pose.

This article explores Anatole Broyard’s 1987 New York Times review of On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates, a book that examines the sport with rare clarity and depth. Broyard reflects on how Oates cuts through the boxing films as a distinct American genre. Rather than simply cataloguing fight scenes, Grindon reads these films as a cultural grammar that dramatises core tensions in American life. His analysis reveals that the ring serves as a public stage where private and national

In 2015 Nicholas Dixon explores the arguments put forward by the American Medical Association House of Delegates “AMA” which says that "Professional and amateur boxing should be banned outright." He also poses arguments supporting his own position of a ban of blows to the head in professional boxing.  

Today, I am going to talk about an essay by Randy Roberts called “A Two-Fisted Testing Ground of Manhood”. It looks at boxing not just as a sport, but as something that reflects culture, race, gender, and history.

This piece examines Randy Roberts’ 2014 essay on boxing and academia, showing how the sport has been tied to debates about race, class, and masculinity. It highlights how fighters like Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali reflected broader social and political struggles, and how scholars such as Eldridge Cleaver and R. W. Connell framed boxing as central to understanding identity and power.

Based on Barbara Brinson Curiel’s "Fighting Back: Boxing, Violence, and Masculinity in Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida", this piece explores how boxing shaped Chicano masculinity in the 1980s. Contrasting hyper-masculinity built on violence with alternative models of humility and resilience.

Jérôme Beauchez’s “The ‘Sweet Science’ of Bruising” looks at boxing as more than just a sport. He sees it as a way to understand how power and inequality work in society. Boxing reveals the struggles of people dealing with problems tied to class, race, and gender.

We interviewed Dr. Deborah Jump, Reader in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University and Head of Youth Justice at the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies. She highlights an overlooked area of boxing.