Opinions: Children In Boxing Matches/combat Sports?

I recently agreed to be the medical official for a boxing exhibition for my local boxing gym. I am a boxer myself as a hobby (my profession qualifies me as the medic for these competitions) for the very same gym as the one I was officiating for.
Anyway, I knew the gym had a kids session twice a week, but I had never seen it. Anyway, at the exhibition there were about 12 matches, of which, the first 5 were kids, some as young as around 6-7 years old. They were wearing 16 oz gloves and headguards, the matches were 2 rounds of one minute long and they only did it if they wanted to. Everyones parents were there. I was a little suprised how young some of the kids were, but the envrionment was very friendly, supportive and full of families. Additionally, the kids were very relaxed and having fun outside of the ring before and after their match.
So, later when I mentioned this event to my friends, one of them claimed it was wrong to be allowing children to fight. He did admit he knew nothing about the situation and he could be easily wrong, but his knee jerk reaction was that it was wrong. However, when I was this age, I was competing in karate matches myself and in all the matches I have ever seen, not a single child was hurt and they tended to see it as fun, some more than others, simply because the gloves are SO big to them, they cant swing hard enough to hurt each other, more or less like a giant pillow fight.
Additionally in this exhibition, no child was hurt and any injuries were sustained by the adults.
So, what I am trying to say is, I am wondering what the general opinion is of the public who dont know anything about these combat sports in which children learn to defend themselves and fight.
Being honest, my personal opinion was that it gave me self-confidence when I was a child, it also kept me in shape, taught me discipline (part of these sports is that the child is taught the seriousness of fighting and to only use it to defend yourself or someone incapable of defending themselves) and it was done in a manner in which the children never came to any harm. I was suprised by my friends answer, but only because I had never considered what someone else who hasnt been exposed to this could feel.
So, what do you think? Do you think its good to help teach kids right and wrong, defend them against bullies, have a bit of fun on a sunday and get them interested in sports, or is it a worrying idea where you lead children down the wrong path?

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