Boxers being killed by the practice of their trade is not something you see everyday. But it is a little too common an occurrence for comfort. Since 1970, more than 50 professional fighters have died from boxing related injuries. The Jones-Scottland fight is but the latest sad piece of evidence that much work remains to be done in order to fully legitimize boxing, whose participants do not yet have a mandatory retirement fund or guaranteed medical coverage. People like Senator John McCain urge the formation of a national commission to regulate boxing. Two pieces of legislation spearheaded by McCain that aim at protecting boxers and cleaning up the sport have passed in recent years. Perhaps the time is soon to come when boxing will more closely resemble the structure of the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, etc., and come off less as a merciless opportunity for the few to make millions at the expense of the many who routinely shed sweat, blood, and sometimes their very lives. But even if this time had already come to pass, would the events of June 26th have turned out any differently? Would Beethavean Scottland still be alive? Probably not. As long as boxing remains a sport where men throw punches at one another with bad intentions, there will always be the chance of someone going down for the count.
Boxing is not the only sport that contains the risk of serious injury or worse. Twenty-seven year old Korey Stringer, an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, recently suffered heatstroke and died during training camp, leaving behind his wife Kelci, and three year old son, Kodie. That a man went from being a Pro Bowl football player to a nationally known casualty of sport is seen mostly as an aberration instead of a call to arms, being that it was the very first incident of its kind in the NFL. It is actually more common on the high school level than in the pro ranks for athletes to pay a grave price for training to be in peak shape. Long gone are the days when pro football players practiced for a couple of hard hours before being given permission to take a water break. It's no longer considered unmanly for a player to listen to the distress signals being sent out by his body. Sure, there are those who are outraged and cry out for radical changes to be made. They want the players to be better protected from their own desire to excel so that they may earn playing time. But the fact is that all of the proper precautions were taken that should have prevented Stringer from meeting such an early demise for so frivolous a reason. Does the existence of the multiple safeguards that were in place but made no difference make this tragedy more senseless or less? Does the seeming lack of people to blame make Stringer's death easier or more difficult to swallow? These are questions without answers. The only thing definitive at the end of these queries is a corpse that was once a young man with most of his promising life ahead of him.
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