SAD but nonetheless true is the fact that when Taylor and Prograis enter the ring tonight, the recent tragic fate of fellow professional Patrick Day will follow them. 

Day’s death from brain trauma sustained in his super welterweight fight against Charles Conwell in Chicago on October 12 shines a harsh light on the sport of boxing in a year in which four ring fatalities constitutes a grim and impossible to wish away toll.

Though inevitably raised at such moments is the chorus of voices calling for the sport to be banned, such talk will always be incompatible with reality.