Chronicle: Boxing saves more lives than it takes

2019 was an extremely tragic year for professional boxing with five deaths.

Boxing is a dangerous sport that sometimes feels difficult to defend, even for us who are passionate about it. Certainly, it turns our stomach even on us who watch the sport when we witness a brutal knockout.

But no one is more familiar with the risks than those who step into the ring themselves.

"I know I can die every time I join the ring, but I take the risk that I love this," Sven Fornling said in October before his title match against Dominic Bösel a month later.

The game ended disastrously for Fornling who was knocked out and had to be taken to a hospital where the doctors noticed a bleeding in the meninges.

In early March, he announced that his career was over.

I commend him for daring to make a tough decision that is still the best for his own health and family. In a boxing world where people are often celebrated for being too tough for their own good, more insight is needed.

The boxers themselves have to take responsibility for their own well-being, just as Fornling says when he "does not want to go a match too much".

After Fornling's injury and the many deaths around the world, the moral debate surrounding boxing was sparked again. Is it really right to box? The question will always divide people into two camps.

Personally, I think boxing saves more lives than it takes.

Martial arts have a nurturing role and are largely about discipline, self-restraint and the prevention of violent behavior. The training room attaches great importance to respect and community, whether it is training mates or opponents.

The boxing story is filled with stories of people who used the sport as a way out of poverty, misery and crime.

A young Floyd Patterson escaped his poor living by hiding in a cave in the New York subway.

Kassim Ouma was kidnapped as a six-year-old and forced to become a child soldier for the National Resistance Army during the civil war in Uganda.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a mother who was a heroinist and a father who ended up in prison. He was best paid throughout the world of sports.

In the countryside of the Philippines, a teenage Manny Pacquiao became a professional to support his parents and five siblings who were forced to sleep on cardboard boxes and could hardly afford rice. Today he works as a senator to give back to the people of his home country.

The list goes on.

Certainly there are risks with boxing, just like with everything else in life.

Should boxing be banned because it is a dangerous sport? No, I don't think so.

People will always want to compare themselves with one another and then it is better that it takes place in orderly forms with strict rules and medical checks.

Instead, let the tragic year 2019 be the start of a discussion about how the sport can be made safer.