Damn sissy bull riders

Boxing is the toughest sport, what are you complaining about?

Bowling, Shooting, Billiards and Fishing are the bottom 4... only ones I could pass as being good at. Oh wait, there's table tennis at #47.

Two problems.

First, cricket is missing from that list. I may be the only white person west of England who plays the game, but it still ought to be on there.

Second, the criteria shouldn't all be weighted the same amount. There's absolutely no way basketball is more difficult than baseball. I can actually play basketball, as long as the other people playing are also considerably less than six feet tall. I would have to train for quite a while to learn how to play baseball properly.

Perhaps the sports should have their ratings weighted toward whatever skills are emphasized in each one, or perhaps people should stop trying to rank unrelated activities on a linear scale.

i said the other day that i thought Hockey took the most skill out of the 4 major sports..
well, i suppose when factoring in all of those other sports as well, ranking #2 is still pretty impressive.
although, while boxing is all about beating your opponent, i still believe due to all the variables in hockey, its the hardest.
boxing-toughest.. yes.
toughest to play.. nopers.

--hockey player and fan..gloating.

Baseball/softball ranked together? Main difference is ability to smoke while on the field in softball, baseball requires smokers to use dugout or clubhouse.
How is hockey behind boxing? Same general idea but with sticks and on ice.

ice hockey is the toughest

it's like boxing, soccer, baseball, and football...

...all on iceskates

Masturbation is not on the list?? WTF!

Ice hockey over boxing any day. Try boxing on ice skates. JMO.

Where did professional ice fishing place?

None of 'em can hold a candle to UFC and PRIDE fighting.

baseball tougher than soccer

Obvious?

Boxing? feh
Try Mixed Martial Arts, combine boxing with muay thai and grappling and wrestling and kickboxing.

They don't even mention blurnsball

I love both boxing and hockey, and I can see how boxing can be considered harder. Hockey, team sport, linemates can help you through a rough night. Boxing, make a mistake, and you have a 10 count to get yourself back together.

NetOwl


I DRTFA, but I think they had physical endurance as a criteria for what was "toughest".

Cricket would just be below Bowling.

"...masturbation is not even on the list."

That's because it's a hobby, not a sport, although for some of us it's a full-time profession.

Ernest Hemmingway once said (paraphrased), "There were only three sports: mountain climbing, bullfighting and motor racing; all others are just games." Probably due to the very great possibility of dying from them, so he could have included prizefighting in there.

I would think hockey is tougher.

Boxing is trying to avoid getting the crap beat out of you.

Hockey involves moving on the ice, getting the puck away from your goal, getting the puck to your opponent's goal, all while trying to avoid getting the crap beat out of you.

I am a huge hockey fan (and not a boxing fan at all) and I agree with the assessment.

Hockey is OCCASIONALLY pummelling another guy on skates... Despite the fact that hockey players don't wear gloves when they fight, it's not the only thing they do, either. Ergo, in terms of pure toughness, I gotta go with the boxers. With hockey players coming a close second.

/occasional player, forever a fan

Hockey fan and ex-player, but I have to agree with Robert_the_Large. Grapple-type fighting (including amateur wrestling) is the most strenuous thing I've ever done.

Thank $deity I started smoking.

Is it me or did ESPN just go all out D&D style?

Oh and where's snowboarding? Are was that supposed to be on the same level as skiing?

/list is crap

Baseball? I've seen 8 year old kids play this "tough" sport better than some 28 year old kids.

Unfreakable - too true. My granddad was a bare-knuckle boxer before the War - he was one tough guy. Very kind and considerate, but he could take care of any problem that might come up.

He taught me just enough for me to know that boxing is brutal, and not just because you get hit.

I can understand boxing being #1.....but rugby should be higher.

I'd say auto racing is tougher than track and field. I don't know any T&F events where a slight screw-up by someone can result in the sudden, violent deaths of several competitors and by-standers....

"I DRTFA, but I think they had physical endurance as a criteria for what was "toughest"."

Only one of many.

How the fark could they forget baseketball and frogball ?

This is s joke

*Or was that supposed to be on the same level as skiing?

/I write too many Customer Service e-mails
//I are moran

I like that tennis requires better hand eye coordination than hockey.

Maybe the special olympics hockey.

I can't wait to cite this survey to prove my points.

I also can't wait to totally debunk it when someone else cites it to prove a point.

Either way, who's the big winner? That's right: ME. What a great day.

better make that 'A' joke...

Gymnastics is the toughest sport. In what other sport can you get a 15 year old girl with a broken leg out on the balance beam doing a backflip and NOT get arrested for child abuse? Or on the floor doing a double twisting double back? hmm??

Distance cycling is below figure skating? WTF? And sprint cycling is even lower? Yet again, ESPN shows they know little about sports they're not smart enough to cover.

I think some of you need "tough" defined for you.

Tough does not mean "most strenuous". Tough does not mean "requires the most skill". Tough does not mean "requires the best conditioning".

Tough is tough. Hockey is tough, but not tougher than boxing on it's best day. Soccer (fagball) is ranked low because it should be. It's hardly a "tough" sport by any definintion of tough I believe in.

Running around a field in shiney shorts and pulling your shirt over your head is about as untough as it gets. Auto racing tougher than soccer? Yes. I haven't heard of any soccer players getting killed during a match lately. Fans getting trampled to death doesn't count.

I was watching hockey with my brother in law and a fight broke out (insert joke) and he said "these guys think they are so tough but none of them could last a minute in the ring with Tyson" and I said "Tyson wouldn't last a minute against (insert favorite enforcer) balancing on skates with a jersey pulled over his head"

I have a tough time believing that baseball rates higher than rugby.

I personally think that lacrosse should also rate higher; that game is tough.

/'La crosse' = Quebecois slang for masturbation, so there you go.

This coming from the network that gives us a Sopranos-esque football drama show, a sportscenter reality show, and an hour long segment of basketball highlights that they call "sportscenter."

It's amusing that the two top sports ranked on this list are barely given any actual attention from espn.

In closing, I wish I could get "Hockey Night in Canada" in Ohio.

Rugby is too low on the list. If you take into fact that it and football are fairly comparable and it's arguably tougher than Football and the judges don't seem to have a concept of the sport (rugby analytical 5.63 vs. football 7.13) there is no way it should be ranked below Baseball, Tennis, and Gymnastics

Danger Mouse
Try batting for 9 hours straight whilst being peppered with 95mph balls aimed at your midriff or head.

I'd put it above tennis. But below rugby. Which is why that list is f***ed

no way boxing should be up there. MMA are the way of the future...nobody wants to watch a boxing match anymore...K-1 and Pride fights will draw over 60,000 ppl in japan and what not...tyson signed a K-1 contract well see how well his boxing skills come into play when a Sapp is throwing elbows and kicks at him.

UFC is also way more of a tougher sport...not only do they have the boxing element, but they also gotta be able to wresstle, kick, grapple, submit...

boxing nowadays is for guys not tough enough to make it in the MMA world.

Cheerleading's a sport?

mr_crash_davis "...masturbation is not even on the list."
That's because it's a hobby, not a sport, although for some of us it's a full-time profession.


So, you're in politics?