Mark Kleiman explains why it’s beneath contempt:
…[B]oxing is an exercise that uses two
remarkable devices in a very odd way. One of them is a servomanipulator
of incredible versatility, delicacy and precision, a gadget that can
play a violin or caress a cheek or fix a watch or carry a suitcase. The
other is a computer with capacities we still haven’t exhausted. It’s
small enough to carry around at all times, and it can write a sonata
for the violin, do rocket science and every other kind of science, and
give advice to children. Try that with your laptop. Oh yeah; this
computer is capable of love…the real thing, not reciting a script.What’s truly amazing about boxing is how these
wonders are used. You might think the computer could be hooked up to
instruct the servo to make something incredibly cool, but you would be
wrong. In boxing, the game is to take the servomechanism and use it
like a hammer to whale on the computer until its little lights go out
and it stops working.
Yup. Nothing good happening there. (H/t Asymmetrical Information.)