A sad reality of this sport is that you can die participating. The most prominent death I can remember in the ring is Duk Koo Kim. Although I didn't see this fight (5 years before I was born), perhaps the most famous incident ever was Emile Griffith in his famous fight with Bernie Paret. Can anyone remember a more significant death than these two? Also, do you think boxing has done enough to stop this? Would headgear help?

I think in recent years many safeguards have been put in place to help avoid serious injury and there seem to have been fewer in recent (say, 1990s onward) years, But in a sport where the object is to knock out your opponent, it is inevitable that serious injury and even death will result periodically. Having said that, much has been done to avoid repeats of the brutal blood-bath type duels of the 1940 and 50s (there were 22 boxing related deaths recorded in 1953 alone.)

Japanese Sumito Urayama's knockout and subsequent death also rates among the saddest. It occurred in the first round of his first fight as a pro - his pro career only lasted 73 seconds after being knocked out in the first round; he died 6 days later.

Hayes Edward "Big Ed" Sanders died from a knockout. He didn't die immediately, but he never regained consciousness and died in surgery.

It's very sad when anyone dies. Boxers at least know the risk beforehand. Luckily, we have more focus on safety measures now.

It not only ruins the boxer that got killed, but it ruins the boxer that killed him. Many boxers after they kill a man in the ring never fight the same way again. That happened to Max Baer when he killed Frankie Campbell in 1930 (he was the Universal Heavyweight Champion in between 1934 and 1935). It ruined Ray Mancini, it ruined Ezzard Charles, and it ruined many others boxing careers.