When Michael Vick, a star football player, was arrested recently for operating a dog fighting contest on his property, the public was outraged. Mr. Vick had defied a commonly held belief that dogs should be raised as family pets rather than fighting animals trained to kill.

This raises the question of whether the safety of dogs is valued more highly than the safety of prize fighters. It is difficult to imagine a more brutal confrontation than two men entering a boxing ring to pulverize the other into submission. The only protection a prize fighter has is his mouth piece and his defensive skills.

Throughout the years, prize fighting has had a sordid history of complaints of criminality and fraud. Boxing commissions within each state are directed to enforce its laws and rules and are authorized to issue licenses to each boxer after determining the physical fitness of the boxer to engage in a boxing match.

But the New York Times article of July 30, 2007 entitled "In Boxing’s Underbelly, A Blind Eye to Fighter’s Health", writers John Eligon and Duff Wilson showed that boxers often circumvent the rules and regulations of the boxing commissions when submitting medical reports of their fitness to fight containing forged signatures of doctors or false medical information of corrupt doctors who receive monies to enable the boxer to enter the ring despite his inability to fight. The medical report of a boxer submitted to the boxing commission is available for public inspection.

According to the article in the New York Times, the Nevada Boxing Commission issued licenses to fighters to enter the ring despite the commission’s knowledge that the boxer has sustained serious injuries in earlier fights and that the medical report submitted to the commission by the boxer is materially incomplete.

Many boxers have sustained further permanent injuries at the hands of another fighter after entering the ring physically unfit to fight because of injuries from other appearances in the ring. Some fighters with ring related injuries become frozen in time, appearing zombie like when appearing in public.

Another New York Times Article, dated August 1, 2007 by John Eligon entitled "Senate Bill Revisits Medical Safeguards" expresses that the United States Senate is considering uniform standards to end the shortcomings of the boxing commissions. This bill has been passed by the Senate on three separate occasions, only to be defeated each time in the House of Representatives. Whether the respective state boxing commissions and the I.B.F (International Boxing Federation) and the W.B.A (World Boxing Association) will adopt uniform and acceptable standards about the boxer’s eligibility to fight remains a hotly debated question because the boxer’s well being is rarely considered.

Unlike other athletes, boxers have no medical or disability benefits. Boxers that are financially unsuccessful in the ring are denied adequate medical assistance. The boxer’s earnings are distributed for payment of taxes, promoters, trainers and managers before the boxer may receive any earnings. Few boxers therefore ever earn enough income to enjoy their later years with peace and dignity. Boxers may engage in the "one more fight" syndrome hoping to earn enough to support themselves although the money will be spent quickly and not saved. Although radio and television receive substantial revenues from advertisers who want their products displayed before the public in a boxing match, the same is not true of the boxers.

The boxer’s financial circumstance, their health and their general hopelessness often relegates a boxer to the margins of society, along with criminal elements. As the "boxers" only imagine returning to the boxing ring, they remain on the proverbial "stoop" observing the world go by without hope for a meaningful future.

Recently a fighter unfit for a match because of previous injuries in the ring fought and was battered, all for the sum of $6,000.00 and aggravation of his injuries.

Until fighters begin to drop dead from their injuries sustained in the boxing ring, little or nothing may be done to improve their plight. Circumstances do not favor the boxer who enters the ring. Prize fighting typically brings the worst out in the spectators and the sport in general. Two fighters beating each other into submission rarely brings out the elevated human instincts.

Prize fighting brings in large revenues to the states and the federal government making the governments partners with the boxing "industry". However the boxer’s "pain" remains exclusively limited to the boxer.

The only winners in the prize fight field are the managers, trainers, doctors, promoters and media that are like leeches who live off the bodies of prizefighters. Either reform the boxing profession so that all boxers may lead lives of dignity or end this barbaric contest where there are no winners at all.