DEUT70 Unlike other sports, in wrestling and especially in boxing, the chances of inflicting damage and bodily harm on the opponent are very high, since essentially that is the goal of the activity in defeating an opponent. The same verse[s] used above to encourage exercise and keep the body healthy [are] also the same verse[s] that may prohibit boxing and wrestling, because these activities almost always result in some bodily damage, which may violate the commandment[s] of keeping the body healthy [this verse and Deuteronomy 4:15]. The Talmud clearly states that causing someone else bodily harm is forbidden (Bava Kama 91b). If harming another human being intentionally is forbidden, then all wrestling and certainly all boxing should be forbidden for a Jew. And yet we see that the sports are permitted in certain circumstances. How can this be? Maimonides helps to provide an answer to this question. Although he rules it is forbidden to harm one's own body and certainly someone else's body, the prohibition is only if it is done between two people so angry at each other that they come to blows (Maimonides, Hilchot Chovel U'Mazik 5:1). ... Rabbi Asher (Responsa Rosh 201:6) [states] that normally a person is liable even if the blow was not intentional. In this case, however, because both opponents entered the ring willingly and knowing that damage might occur in the course of the bout, and because the blow was not intended to inflict permanent damage, then both opponents accept the risk when they enter the ring, and a participant in the sport is not liable. ... This view of wrestling and boxing and the liability for damage it may cause was codified by the son of Rabbeinu Asher in his book, the Tur (Tur, Choshen Mishpat 421:5). Based on these rulings, Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law, also rules that wrestling and boxing are indeed permitted and that any damage as a result of the match does not an individual liable for damages (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 421:5).