2015年经济学人 拳击立法 虽有风险各国还是逐渐放开职业拳击（在线收听）

拳击立法 虽有风险各国还是逐渐放开职业拳击

FIRST Sweden in 2007, then Cuba in 2013, and now Norway have left the small club of countries that ban professional boxing.

The centre-right coalition in power since 2013 promised to cut taxes and red tape—and to let Norwegians indulge in pastimes its predecessors deemed too dangerous, including cheaper wine and spirits, jetskis and Segways.

And last month 33 years without pro boxing came to an end, leaving Iceland with the Nordic region's sole boxing ban.

Health concerns lay behind the Norwegian ban. (Cuba had considered the violence—and prize money—incompatible with Marxism.)

The World Medical Association has long called for the sport to be outlawed everywhere.

But Norway's pugilists are delighted, as they can fight at home and earnings will rise.

A champ unable to throw a punch in her own country probably did more than a new government's reforming zeal to end the ban. Cecilia Braekhus (pictured), a former champion kickboxer, turned to the sport in 2003.

Undefeated in her 27 pro matches to date, in September she became the first Norwegian, and first woman, to hold all major world-title championships in her class (welterweight). In 2012 she was named Norway's sports personality of the year. A favourite of the country's sports pages and tabloid press, she freshened up boxing's battered image—and made it a symbol of the fightback against the Nordic nanny state.