Amir Khan Backs £500,000 Appeal for Fighter Welfare Inquiry
Former boxing world champion Amir Khan and Liverpool's Paul Smith are backing a campaign to raise £500,000 for an investigation into safety and welfare across combat sports.
The Global Fighters' Association (GFA), which is based in Liverpool, says the inquiry will look at fighters' medical care, pay, contracts and the support they receive after retirement. The group campaigns for better working conditions for boxers and other combat sports athletes.
Barrister Jonathan Caplan KC will lead the investigation. He will gather evidence from fighters, doctors, referees and promoters.
Medical bills and low earnings
Smith is a former British champion. He told BBC News that many fighters struggle with high medical costs and low earnings, and that they need better protection.
During his own career he sometimes paid between £700 and £1,000 a year for medical tests. Boxers competing at lower levels, he said, could take home only a few hundred pounds after expenses, even after spending weeks preparing for a fight.
"We want to try and create some form of safety blanket for fighters," Smith said.
He also spoke about the difficulty of adjusting once the fighting stops. "You lose that purpose, you lose that identity, you lose your day-to-day routine," he said.
A body to turn to
Khan is a co-founder of the GFA. He said there needed to be an organisation fighters could turn to "when something goes wrong", whether that happens in training, over contracts or after retirement.
The money raised will pay for the investigation. It will also support the GFA's wider plans to set up a trade union.
The British Boxing Board of Control regulates professional boxing in Britain and already requires annual medical examinations and brain scans. Its general secretary, Robert Smith, told BBC Sport earlier this year that the board provides insurance for death and permanent injury. He added that it would support the creation of an independent fighters' union.
Source: BBC News