War Pigs And Fight Promoters Make Bank While Fighters Get Their Heads Beat In

War pigs are always spinning narratives about noble people fighting for noble causes. They’re like fight promoters who sell more tickets by claiming a fight will be one for the ages when in truth one of the fighters is hopelessly outmatched. They take the money, boxing fans take the bait, and the real-life Rocky Balboa takes the beating and possibly the brain damage. Unfortunately, the underdog fighter is soon forgotten, to live out his days perhaps with Parkinson’s, perhaps with brain trauma, definitely with shattered dreams. The fight promoter simply moves on to the next bout he’s able to build up, making more money by promoting an up-and-coming youngster with a compelling story who by heart alone might prove more than a match against a fighter twice his size. And the boxing fans, well they just never seem to learn. And as Don King might once have said, there’s a boxing fan born every minute.

The war pigs have been shaping up a fight for a couple of decades now. If I may continue the boxing metaphor for a while longer, they managed to break Ukraine from their legally binding contract in 2014 (i.e. they managed a coup that resulted in the elected president of Ukraine having to flee for his life). Then they did everything possible to make Ukraine think they were tough enough to stand up to Russia. Not just in the way a neighbor should stand up for his own territorial integrity but belligerently, the way Tommy Gunn did in the Rocky V movie, forgetting all the ties the one had with the other. The war pigs not only filled up the fighter’s head with grandiose ideas of how great he was, they also told him he had been abused by the guy they wanted him to fight. Then they bought him the very best equipment possible (to be repaid after the fighter won the championship and had loads of money, of course), gave him expert training, and did everything possible to arrange a fight (Hey, a fight promoter works hard for the hundreds of millions of dollars he rakes in, you know).

So now Ukraine finds itself in the fight of its life against a far larger, far more savvy fighter, and it’s taking it on the chin. While the war pigs would rather their fighter win (because, after all, he owes them for all the equipment they bought for him), the most important thing for a fight promoter or a war pig is that the fight is on. Whoever comes out on top, the war pig/fight promoter is the real winner. There’s no blood on his tuxedo when the fight’s over, no matter how much the blood of both fighters is all over the ring.

I don’t know what I can do to convince you the fight promoter/war pigs don’t care about the fighters. They are, as Jack London once described a fighter, “a piece of meat” to them. Don King cares no more for fighters than a pimp cares for his women, probably less. He makes millions while they get their heads smashed in. War pigs view the casualties of war as good promotion for the next big event. War pigs not only make money from selling weapons, they also profit by advancing their own geo-strategic ends. The boxers who have been exploited by fight promoters end up in poverty or with severe physical conditions are legion. The countries who have been used by the war pigs to fight the big fights and end up impoverished and forgotten about are many. Their names, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc. were once splashed across headlines, now they are replaced by the newest face. Ukraine is that fresh-faced kid everyone is now interested in due to the hype machine. In a few years’ time, he’ll be remembered no more than any of the others. And if you doubt me, where is your concern for Afghanistan now when in 1980 we were all supporting the brave resistance fighters? Where is the concern you had for Libya now when once you were insisting “SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE?” Where is your concern for Syria now when the war pigs are taking its oil and controlling its wheat fields? Your concern for the fighter of today is demonstrated by how you care about the one who came before him. You are to be judged by your behavior, not by the current flag in your Twitter profile.

I suppose there will always be fight promoters and war pigs willing to take advantage of the courage and the ambitions of fighters. And I suppose there will always be those who come from a disadvantaged background who are willing to take up fighting in order to make a better life for themselves. I guess there’s nothing we can do about that. But we are the ones willing to give our money and our energy to the fight game. We’re the ones who make it possible. As long as we fall for the hype and watch entranced as one fighter beats the life out of another, the fight game will continue and the fight promoters and war pigs will keep getting richer.

As a former boxing fan who’s seen two noble fighters die in the ring, I no longer wish to be part of it. Let’s stop caring about which fighter deserves to win, and let’s put an end to the fight game. Let fight promoters and war pigs find honest work instead.