Former boxer Paul Smith says a broken system leaves fighters hurt, exploited or forgotten, and he wants far better support for athletes.
Former boxer Paul Smith has issued a blunt verdict on the state of the fight game: the system is failing the very people who risk everything inside the ring. In his view, too many fighters end up "hurt, exploited or forgotten."
Smith, who knows the sport from the inside, pointed to a lack of support for athletes as the core problem. Boxers put their bodies and futures on the line, he argues, yet the structures around them too often leave them to fend for themselves once the lights go down.
His criticism lands at a time when conversations about fighter welfare keep returning to the surface. Who looks after boxers during their careers? Who is there when the injuries pile up, the purses dry up or the spotlight moves on? Smith's message is that the answer is not good enough.
The call is simple but heavy: if boxing wants to keep celebrating the warriors who fill arenas and drive the sport's drama, it has to build real protection and support around them. Otherwise, the cycle of fighters being used up and left behind will continue.
