Comment Re:Here's an idea (Score 5, Insightful) 233
The boxing glove did much the same thing. The human head is several pounds of thick bone, and the human hand is basically chicken drumsticks; a bare-knuckle boxer couldn't hit a man in the head very hard without breaking his fingers. The object was to hit the supraorbital ridges, opening cuts. The plentiful blood flow in the head assured that the opponent would be blinded by blood, and the fight was over. It also left him looking like the second-place winner in a knife fight, and public revulsion caused boxing bans in many jurisdictions.
The industry headed that off by inventing the boxing glove, which cut down on the lacerations. It also hardened the fist enough that a powerful man can deliver a maximum-effort blow. Result: boxing changed from a face-rearranging sport to a brain-damaging sport.