should boxers be protected from themselves...?

There's no way a reputable sanctioning body would allow brain damaged boxers to get into the ring. If punchy old fighters want to get in the ring that's their business, but athletic commissions and sanctioning bodies are under no obligation to sanction their fights, and IMO it's immoral for them to do so.

I hope someday boxing gets an international non-profit sanctioning body that will include robust health exams, a boxer's pension, unbiased rankings, 1 champion per division, and not allow boxers with signs of brain damage to enter the ring.

 

G-Man is an example, super granite chin but in the end it meant he took way too much punishment. One of the stories is that he sparred HWs and fought Julian Jackson, possibly one of the P4P hardest hitting boxers of all time, twice. He was supposedly having bad headaches before the Benn fight. Wasn't even KOed. Took a knee. Walked back to his corner - into a coma.

PS of course they should, suicide is illegal.

 

Not from themselves but more from money hungry promoters and managers that have no morals and put them in cards and use their fame to just make money without any regards to the boxers health.

:hat