Howard Cosell used to say boxing was the most brutal sport in America. He even suggested it should be banned. The Pope blessed him. Mother Teresa congratulated him. Bob Arum suggested a sure cure for people like him would be birth control.

It was equivalent to John Wayne saying he hated horses after he made a living on horseback. Or Bogie was terrified of guns. The thought of sex made Jean Harlow vomit. Marilyn Monroe condemned nudist colonies. The dog bit the hand that fed him, then went for the windpipe.

Cosell's remarks made Mutiny on the Bounty look like Lovers and Other Strangers. Vinny Pazienza got cold feet and cancled his fight with Greg Haugen. Let's get real. The fight game kept Humble Howard working steady. If he got any steadier, he would have been motionless.

If you want to talk brutal, let's talk about lions chasing down baby gazelles on the Discovery channel. Sharks taking chucks out of seals -- flip the channel -- I can't look! Even cartoons have violence: Popeye beats Bulto over the head with a surfboard; the Coyote lays in wait to slaughter the Road Runner. Let's face it, Corporate America is brutal. The IRS is brutal. Banks are brutal. Brutal sells. Americans thrive on brutal. Anything else is monotonous. Like watching cabbage grow. Or watching a I Love Lucy rerun.

I am not going to insult your intelligence by saying the Sweet Science is not brutal - it is. I'm sorry, but if you are one of those people who say boxing should be banned, well, I only wish I had a lower IQ so I could enjoy your company. Your argument makes as much sense as a fence around a cemetery. Or feeding hens racing forms so they can lay odds.

Brutality is the lifeblood of every sport. In baseball, guys get crowned by fast balls, followed by a free-for-all that looks like a scene from The Spoliers. Football players getting carried off the field with broken legs, broken arms resembles a scene from Glory. At Indy, car crashes kill or cripple drivers all the time. Spectators attend volleyball games armed with rosary beads and bullet-proof vests. Hockey is an outstanding candidate for the Ways to Be Mean Committee. Wrestling is like watching Gestapo home movies. Name me a contact sport today that is not brutal and I'll send you an autographed copy of my book: Never Marry For Money, You can Borrow It Cheaper.

The thing about these other contact sports is that the injured party is carried out on a stretcher, replaced by a teammate, and the brutish incident is forgotten as quickly as a Chevy Chase movie. It's different in boxing. When you get injured there's no one to come to the rescue. You lay there for all the world to see, bloody and swollen, while someone sends for Oral Roberts to bring you back to life.

Let me explain it this way: Glen Ford had the U.S. Calvary. OJ Simpson had the Dream Team. Joe DiMaggio had Marilyn. Who does the prizefighter have? Nobody! Unless the referee happens to be his brother-in-law.

Like in no other sport , a fighter is on his own. It's hardluck poker. Dial 911 and you get a busy signal. The paramedics took a wrong turn. The Search and Rescue Squad was out to lunch.

See what I mean? H-E-L-P is not in the Ring dictionary. There are no appeals for leniency in boxing. Christians were tossed to starving lions. Starving fighters are tossed to Don King.

Like a stray cat, fighters are on their own. Seals have a better chance in the shark infested waters of the Antarctic. At least the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Abbott had Costello. Laural had Hardy. I don't know how many had Joan Crawford. Think about this, The fighter has no one. He's a one-man island. A man alone adrift at sea. Sure the trainer and his seconds are in his corner, but when the bell rings they desert him faster than Ava Gardner left Mickey Rooney.

The poor pugilist is all alone in the Foreign Legion of sports. He's as lost as Jimmy Hoffa. Doctor Livingston. His Junk mail couldn't find him. Boxing is the Bermuda Triangle beginning with James Figg in 1719 and swinging down to Lennox Lewis in the year 2000.

When it comes to the art of Boxicana some people have a great frame of mind and no picture. They don't want to see the positive aspect of the sport. They can't see that the fight game has kept more troubled youths off street corners and into gyms than any other sport. If Jeffrey Dahlmar had put more hours in the gym and less into cannibalizing people he might have been another Mike Tyson, contented with chewing ears. The Trailside Killer might have been the Horsehide Bomber.

When you think about it, basketball and football has more bad guys than Butch Cassidy could have mustered in a year. But its boxing that needs the Wild Bunch; warriors raised on marble cake, brick ice cream, and rock candy. The sport would die without them. Fistiana is no place for a guy who does 100 yards in 10 seconds when a fight starts. It's strictly for guys that are so tough they make the teacher stay after school. Vinnie Pazienza, Roberto Duran, Lew Jenkins, Jake LaMotta, Fritzie Zivic, Rocky Graziano, Ernie Shavers. Jesse James would have loved them. Wells Fargo would have shuddered at the thought. Wild Bill Hickock would have crossed the street when he seen them coming.

There's a story about Rocky Graziano that might be worth repeating. His teacher asked him, "Who shot Lincoln?" and he snarled, "I don't squeal on nobody!"

You see, boxing is like liver and onions. You either love it or you hate it. Either way, there's no denying that the fight game has been a healthy release for the frustrations of boys who otherwise might have ended up on death row. Archie Moore told me he was destined for life in prison if he hadn't become a fighter. Sonny Liston, Pinklon Thomas, Riddix Bowe, Tony Alaya Jr., Mike Tyson, they all had their run-ins with the law and were probably destined for life in prison until boxing became their salvation. Pull the rip cord just in time. Go places they never expected to visit -- Shangri-la. Tahiti or Fiji. Buy mom a mansion. Send the family to Hawaii.

Picture, if you can, the proud mother: "My son used to be the lookout for the gang's hideout. Now he's heavyweight champion of the world!"

You wipe your eyes.

Boxing is brutal you say? Marriage is brutal. Living with a teenager is brutal. The everyday struggle of life is brutal. Losing a loved one is brutal. Like prostitution and crooked politicians, boxing has been around forever, and it will continue to sail along like one of Her Majesty's battleships showing the flag to the colonies. Sister Helen Prejean writes a book: Dead Men Can't Walk. Don King gets someone to read it to him. Hollywood starts a new Rocky series.

Sure boxing is dangerous. Coal miner's and firefighters and guys who build skyscrapers live with danger. A policeman kisses his family good-bye -- maybe for the last time. Should we ban skyscrapers and police? Hello in there...knock, knock, anybody home? Think hard and consume some of those calories that come fat accompi. Would you cancel your vacation flight to Hawaii because you heard the pilot owned half-interest in a saloon? Or a clairvoyant told you a towelhead was planning to blow up Flight 116. You can't go through life sleeping with one eye open (unless you have a glass eye). You and I live with risk every day.

Knockouts and brain damage, unfortunately happen in fistiana. It also happens practically every sport you can name. Injuries take place in the gym, and after effects on the fighters can be harmful. A guy can trip over is own shoelaces and end up with brain damage. There are sports far more dangerous and brutal than boxing. Remember, the fighter conditions himself to take punishment you or I could never take. So to those who say boxing should be banned, I say this, ban football, ban basketball, ban hockey, TV wrestling, tightrope walking, outlaw Evel Knievel Jr. and for Heaven's sake shut Joan Rivers up for that is more punishment than anyone should be subjected to.

So you see, the only difference between the Marciano-Louis fight and the Little Big Horn massacre is that General Custer's followers didn't have to look at the films, and Joe Louis' fans did.

A Bit About Bill Kelly