Hitting, exchanging blows, brawl, attack, fight, struggle … war. How many equivalents can one enumerate for this concept? Certainly as many as the images one can visualize for it; to the point that boxing as a sport vanishes from one’s mind; since its most important component is eliminated: the audience!
Without the presence of spectators, these events are nothing more than primitive forms of violence and the artist has deliberately left them out to deal with a more essential aspect; the eliminated.