This is truly horrible and I can't begin to express how sad I feel for Mago and his family. Magomed is such a hard-working guy and was obviously trying his best to provide for his family. This is depressing.
Magomed's purse for the fight was $40,000 (in case you're wondering Mike Perez's was 30,000), typically after taxes, promoter expense, and trainer expense, a fighter actually pockets 50% of his purse. So, Magomed fought and was permanently injured over $20,000. I'm sorry to say, but that's crap and $20,000 is not worth risking your life over. Magomed would have been better to take up another profession. Now that he is injured, his family is scrambling to pay for his medical bills, and that's also crap. It'd be nice if HBO chipped in a bit, and by law the promoter should be required to chip in significantly. Thankfully, several people have stepped forward and are helping Mago's family, and these people deserve a lot of respect.
I am a huge boxing fan but I admit it's hard to support boxing when you see things like this happen. There are too many injuries and deaths in boxing. Frankie Leal was recently killed in a fight that should have been stopped earlier. And on HBO back in 2005, I remember when American boxer Leavander Johnson was killed in a fight with Jesus Chavez (once again, that was a fight that should have been stopped 2, even 3 rounds earlier than it was). There's about 1 to 3 deaths per year in boxing and probably 10+ major injuries. Some things need to change in this sport to prevent this happening in the future.
I just feel so horrible about all of this and quite frankly it's hard to be a boxing fan when you see things like this happen. It's horrible. These guys are risking their lives and they're not even being paid adequately. Yes, there is money in boxing if you're a champ or very popular (guys like Klitschko, Mayweather Jr., Hatton, Calzaghe, Berto, Cotto, Alvarez, Kessler, Pacquiao, Chavez Jr, De La Hoya, Bute, Froch, Khan, have made big bucks, multiple $500,000+ purses) but for the other 99% of boxers who aren't champions or aren't that popular, the money is crap and they're underpaid. Sometimes even ranked, top-20 type contenders in boxing often times need a second job on the side to sustain themselves financially. I remember hearing a story recently that Peter Manfredo Jr (a guy who has fought Joe Calzaghe and Jeff Lacy among others) was broke and now working as a janitor. And keep in mind most boxers don't even make it as far as Manfredo did. Frankie Leal died last month over a purse that was probably less than $5,000. That's pathetic, sad, and enraging on so many levels.
Of course, there is a lot of money in boxing at the top level, and boxing does have some of the highest paid athletes in the world (Mayweather Jr., Klitschko, Hatton, De La Hoya all made over $15 Million for a single fight, sometimes multiple times), but it's important to understand they represent only a tiny fraction, less than 1% of all boxers. Boxing also has some of the lowest paid athletes in the world, when you look at the 99% of guys who never become champions or never make an HBO type fight.
The sad truth is that most boxers would be better off in another line of work...
