Keeping body, soul together

The saga of professional boxer Angelito "Lito" Sisnorio of Koronadal City who campaigned overseas without the necessary permit from the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) is probably no different from the thousands of Filipinos who leave for foreign lands for jobs even without the proper documents.

At 2 a.m. on Saturday, March 31, 2007, Sisnorio, 24, died of brain hemorrhage in a Thailand hospital after being knocked out in the fourth round Friday night by 37-year-old boxing veteran and former world flyweight titlist Chatchai Sasakul at the Mathayon Wat Sing School in Samutprakarn.

The fight was a clear mismatch even though Sasakul was 13 years older than Sisnorio who, notwithstanding the fact that he once held the World Boxing Council (WBC) Youth flyweight championship, was, truth to tell, an average fighter. Sasakul had 61 fights since he turned pro in 1991 while Sisnorio had 17 bouts, losing five of his last six bouts when they tangled that fateful evening.

Sisnorio, the eighth of nine children of a farming family, left the Philippines to help lift his family out of poverty. In his desire to have a better life, Sisnorio threw all caution to the winds and unscrupulous parties undoubtedly took advantage of Sisnorio’s desperation.

When asked why Sisnorio was able to fight abroad without its permission, the GAB, which supervises and regulates professional sports in the country, expressed some helplessness in preventing the Sisnorio tragedy.

To a certain extent, the GAB is indeed helpless. To begin with, it does not have the resources and person power to monitor the departure of every Filipino fighter in our ports and boxing promotions all over the world, despite the Internet and other data bases.

The GAB could, however, give special attention to those countries that regularly get lackluster Filipino fighters to embellish the fight records of local favorites and have them satisfy the bloodthirsty fight crowds with the Filipinos as the punching bags. It would not require extraordinary logistics to keep these nations under some special watch list.

Thailand should be the first in that watch list. How Sisnorio was able to fight in Thailand without Thai authorities checking basic documents like Sisnorio’s GAB permit is simply unpardonable and deserves a thorough probe.

Sisnorio’s death has reopened discussions on a permanent ban on professional boxing. The Vatican and some sectors of the Catholic Church have called boxing a merciless and inhuman sport that violates Church teachings.

Statistics vary on ring deaths, per Wikipedia. Anti-boxing activist, Manuel Velazquez who died in 1994, reports several death counts that vary with the time when they were first compiled and the cut off date. One estimate that is as of December 2006 records 1,344 deaths while the three others are: 1,234; 1,286 and 1,219 (since 1741).

In 1983, the Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA) called for a ban on boxing. Its editor, Dr. George Lundberg called boxing an "obscenity" that "should not be sanctioned by any civilized society."

Many, like Dr. Bill O’Neill of the British Medical Association support the ban because it seems that it is the only sport where the goal is to cause injury to another athlete.

In response, in 1984, R.J. McCunney and P.K. Russo argued in their study entitled "Brain Injuries in Boxing," that boxing is relatively safe compared to other sports by citing fatality rates per 100,000 participants. Horse racing, number one, had 128 fatalities while boxing, last at number eight, had 1.3. Mountaineering, number four, had 51.

Dr. Lundberg replied, "It’s not the deaths but the chronic brain damage that is so frequent." The AMA reports brain deterioration in three out of four boxers who have had 20 or more professional fights.

The debate on permanently ban boxing will continue indefinitely. The status quo will prevail for the simple reason that too many promoters like Bob Arum and Don King, promoter-boxer Oscar de la Hoya, and prize fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales and trainers like Freddie Roach help thousands keep body and soul together.

Do not expect the Philippines to follow the path of Norway, Iceland, Cuba, Iran and North Korea where, according to Wikipedia, professional boxing is forbidden. We are too poor to allow thousands who depend on boxing to go hungry but we should not at the same time fail to protect those who risk their lives each time they climb the ring.