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 boxers are delighted, as they can fight at home and earnings will rise.
Undefeated in her 27 pro matches to date, in September Cecilia Braekhus (picture) 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 favorite 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.
edited from The Economist
