ONE MAN'S GUT: WOMEN'S BOXING FEELS ALL WRONG.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

I'm a sexist pig.

I come to this conclusion late in life, and it is adverse to my typically liberal leanings, but the conclusion has become inescapable.

The inspiration for recognizing this regressed enlightenment comes as much a surprise as the conclusion, but is no less obvious.

I hate women's boxing.

Do not want any part of it. Want it all to just go away. Want it to disappear from the ledgers of every chronicler of sporting events. To all seem like some mad dream of Don King, or Barnum and Bailey, or Billie Jean King after an all-night bender.

There are two women's bouts on the undercard of tonight's Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko heavyweight fight, and in truth I would rather watch dry rot take hold of the patio deck.

There is absolutely nothing appealing to me about watching two women try to knock the snot out of each other.

This is not a rational decision, but a feeling that comes as both uncomfortable and unavoidable. It's opened a personal door to my objective, tolerant world, a door I was certain did not exist.

Blame my old-school father, who taught me to open doors for ladies and treat women like they were special. That traditionalist approach has never interfered with recognizing women should have equal opportunity, including the world of sports.

But this is one step up the ladder of modern thinking I can't take. Frozen at midstep, all rational ability overcome by some queasy feeling in my gut that it is simply wrong.

When women first arrived on the boxing scene, it felt more like a gimmick than anything, some wild promoter's idea of filling a few seats. It wasn't hard to be suspicious that men were more interested in watching Mia St. John because she was a babe than for her incredible skills in the ring. Hoped it would just pass.

Only now there are a few credible female boxers, and their sport has a growing acceptance. They make movies about them now. Women's bouts are becoming more standard, and it bothers me.

I have something of an unintentional ally in this politically incorrect thinking in HBO, which will not broadcast the women's bouts tonight.

HBO has never broadcast a women's bout live, and senior vice president of sports programming Kery Davis said the network has no plans to do so in the immediate future.

``It's not a question of me not liking women's boxing,'' Davis said. ``For me, women's boxing doesn't have the infrastructure yet and the developmental programs necessary to develop enough depth in the program that we should do it on a more regular basis.

``There are some excellent women's fighters. Lucia Rijker, who is on (tonight's) card, is one of them. The problem is, past the top one or two women in her division, there isn't the kind of depth that would allow us to follow Lucia Rijker fights on a regular basis.

``So until the sport gets to the point where there are some amateur programs, and even to the point where they're an Olympic sport, and there is an infrastructure to help build the talent pool, we're not interested.''

The boxing records of all women are suspect because the quality of their opponents are. Too many matches that resemble catfights more than boxing. Then you have the Tonya Hardings of the world jumping into the sport, adding less credibility.

Yet it's less the quality of the fights that bothers me, than some instinct that just tells me it's fundamentally wrong. Women have every right to pursue a career of flat noses and cauliflower ears, but that doesn't mean it should be celebrated.

This is not other sports. It's not basketball or swimming or soccer. At its heart, the sweetest science is a brutal, bloodthirsty sport where the intent is to do bodily harm to the opponent. A line in the equality of women's athletics I can't cross.

Now, I have little problem watching two men try to rip each other's heads off, so you can scream hypocrisy and I have precious little in the way of logical defense. Sometimes you have to go with your heart, and mine says this is not right.

See, this confession makes an old suffragist like myself feel slightly guilty, which only fuels the whole problem. Fit me with a pink, curly tail and a pug nose. Exposed at last.

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Photo:

Laila Ali (right) vs. Valerie Mahfood? It might be happeningtoday at Staples Center, but it doesn't mean everyone has to like it.

Reed Saxon/Associated Press