What Joanna Lumley and two cobras taught me about fist-fighting

Why do we box? It’s an almost ludicrously inefficient form of combat. The last thing the SAS suggests its soldiers to do is put their dooks up. But boxing is nonetheless the world’s leading combat sport — millions watch boxing in lockdown, and when we’re all allowed out, thousands will head first to the pub, then out into the streets and carparks, to throw punches at each other’s heads. Why?

I have the answer. It came to me by a combination of Joanna Lumley and a fight I once witnessed between cobras.

Boxing is not a great form of combat — not if your aim is to put your opponent out of action fast. But Joanna, visiting a boxing gym in Cuba for a recent television programme, made a crucial point: ‘It’s the most natural thing in the world — you put your fists up.’ She was right.

There are Sumerian images of boxing 5,000 years old.