Sports in American society have always been a natural battleground for social issues. Sports lend themselves easily to symbolic conflict: the 1980, fuzzy-cheeked, pull-yourself-up-by-your-skatestraps US Olympic Hockey Team against the Big Bad Russian Menace, Jackie Robinson against the white establishment. But no sport has lent itself as easily to this cultural duking it out than boxing. But boxing is dying or dead in this country, depending on who you ask.

Boxing is a sport as tied up in our nation’s politics and culture as baseball. You all know about Muhammad Ali, so I won’t bore you with him. The pre-WWII era had two great examples you probably know less about: Joe Louis and Benny Leonard. Joe Louis is, I’m sure, familiar to many of you. During WWII, Joe Louis defended his heavyweight title against Max Schmeling, a German and a member of the Nazi party. This was pre-Jackie Robinson, and White America wasn’t in love with black athletes, but as it was the American against the German the country came around and threw their support behind Louis. It helped that Louis was soft-spoken and non-confrontational outside of the ring–he behaved the way many people saw it as “acceptable” for blacks to behave. But his inroads paved the way for Muhammad Ali’s outspokenness.

Benny Leonard, or The Ghetto Wizard, was a Lower East Side streetfighter. He was the lightweight champion of the world for almost ten years and one of the greatest lightweights of all time. He was also Jewish. His career was initially not respected in the Jewish community, but over the years he became a hero to them, helping to dispel the myth of Jewish weakness that much of the country held to. He also brought more typically Jewish attributes into play, using his intelligence to gain a psychological edge over his opponents.

But look at boxing today. Forget fighters who embody embattled social groups–we can’t even find decent fighters who give a crap. The recent De La Hoya-Mayweather bout, potentially the last card for many years to draw in the occasional fan, underscored the point: it looked like a glorified sparring match, with both fighters happy to take a decision—and their combined $45 million in guaranteed earnings. The title “Heavyweight Champion of the World” has lost its oomph. Do you even know who it is? (Why, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Maskaev, and Klitschko, of course!)

So Rest In Peace Boxing. But since we will always need a sport that lets us get out our aggression vicariously, Mixed Martial Arts (UFC, Pride Fighting) is on the rise. I’ll talk about that one next week. In the meanwhile, do you even shed a tear for boxing? Or is it so far gone from the sport of the 20s, 30s, and 60s as to earn nothing more than a 21 gun salute and a folded American flag?