What Boxing Needs to Change in the Wake of Prichard Colon's Terrifying Injury

It’s time for some straight and perhaps uncomfortable talk about boxing.

Millions upon millions of dollars are made every year by fighters, managers, promoters, networks and just about everyone involved in putting on fight cards from the smallest local venues to the bright lights of Las Vegas and everywhere in between.

Some fighters are blessed with the ability to make a damn fine living in the sport, but even the best of them understand tragedy is never more than a punch away, and, if it strikes, they’ll largely be left to fend for themselves.

That’s a disgrace, and it needs to change, immediately.

Boxing, whether it be through the sanctioning bodies, state commissions or promoters and fighters pooling together to develop a genuine fund for injured fighters, must do better when it comes to helping out those who pay a heavy price in the ring.

The money is out there. It wouldn’t take a ton of time or effort for those who enrich themselves in this sport by piggybacking on the risks of others to develop some sort of insurance program for fighters who suffer substantial injuries in the ring.

Something that doesn’t leave them struggling for their lives while their families are forced to shoulder in silence the humongous costs of long-term care while the sport keeps turning without a skipping a beat.

This issue comes up from time to time. The World Boxing Council launched a good-faith effort in 2012 to create a boxing pension fund that would support former champions in financial need, but that’s not enough in this situation, good faith or not.

It usually comes up in the wake of events that leave a fighter in the ultimate fight, one for his life.

Events, unfortunately, like those that took place this past weekend in Fairfax, Virginia, in the co-featured bout of a Premier Boxing Champions card on NBC.

Prichard Colon and Terrel Williams engaged in a pretty rough contest that featured points deducted for low blows, rabbit punching and a bizarre disqualification win for the underdog Williams.

Colon, a promising Puerto Rican prospect who entered the fight undefeated and with a bright future ahead of him, returned to his dressing room where he suffered from dizziness and vomiting and was immediately rushed to the hospital.

He was forced to undergo emergency surgery, according to his promoter Lou DiBella, to relieve pressure and bleeding on his brain. He remains in critical condition as of the last update on his status.

We don’t know when or even if he will recover.

Before we go any further, yes, Colon knew and accepted the risks of being a fighter, and, yes, we can hope that his promoter and the money behind Al Haymon’s PBC make sure he is taken care of (there is no easy way to put this) should he recover, which we all hope he will.

The point is there should be some sort of guaranteed safety net for the fighters, and it shouldn’t only come up in the wake of tragedies.

Colon’s story will appear in the news for a few more days.

But nothing has a long shelf life these days, and eventually the attention will fade. This is a 23-year-old young man who now faces an uncertain future full of complications to his health and future ability to earn a living.

Nobody is saying that DiBella and Haymon won’t do right by their fighter (Haymon visited him in the hospital on Tuesday, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times), but the fans will move on and they’ll take their attention right along with them, and then who knows?

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Remember when Magomed Abdusalamov was the name on every fight fan’s lips?

Sure, you can Google him, and a stray story here and there pops up about his horrible and tragic situation, but, for the most part, his name is completely absent from any boxing broadcasts these days.

Abdusalamov took a frightful beating (this writer was ringside that night, and it was hard to watch) from Mike Perez in a showdown of undefeated heavyweights at the Theater at Madison Square Garden late in 2013.

Mago, as he was known then, went to the hospital, like Colon, where he underwent emergency brain surgery. But the complications for the Russian fighter were just beginning.

Shortly after, he suffered a series of strokes that left him unable to walk or talk. It was touch and go for a while, but he’s pulled through so far.

Today he remains confined to a bed where his wife is forced to take care of him, according to an interesting but sad story by Dan Barry of the New York Times.

He’s had bouts with life-threatening infections from bedsores and requires round-the-clock monitoring due to his frail condition.

He made $40,000 for the last fight of his life, but that only went so far.

The family today lives in the home of a friend in Greenwich, Connecticut, destitute, per William Weinbaum of ESPN, the result of the heavy financial burdens of treating Mago’s complex and expensive health problems, all the result of his last fight in the ring.

There were calls for donations and goodwill for the family—HBO, which televised the fight, emphasized the need for money on many of its followup broadcasts—but the well ran dry, and we stopped talking about it.

People shoved it aside.

The fights kept coming, we all kept watching and nothing changed.

Except for the Abdusalamov family, which will never be the same, and Mago, who sits paralyzed in a bed, where he’ll remain, likely for the rest of his life.

We can only hope things turn out better for Colon and his loved ones, but we won’t know for sure, and eventually we’ll move on.

We’ll stop talking about him and leave him in obscurity to deal with the cost of providing us all entertainment in silence and without our concern.

Something needs to change.

Immediately.