News of the death of Pedro Alcazar yesterday came as a shock to fans and the boxing industry alike. The 26-year-old Panama native died Monday from profuse swelling on his brain, a delayed result of a stoppage loss to Fernando Montiel in a fight for his WBO 115-pound title. Fans who witnessed the bout live and on TV asked: "Could this have been prevented?" Those who knew the previously undefeted fighter asked an even deeper question: "What will happen to Pedro's children?" Alcazar was not just a prize fighter. He was a single father of two.

It is not known if Alcazar has life insurance. If Alcazar were a professional basketball or football player, he would have life insurance and a pension through his profession that would take care of his now-fatherless sons. Insurance broker and boxing journalist Angel Rodriguez has long been an advocate for pro fighters insurance and with the help of a Florida-based promoter, the young man has finally got the ball rolling on his mission. For the sake of men like Pedro Alcazar and the fighter's children, let's hope it catches on.

Throughout boxing's history, boxers have never enjoyed the type of life insurance, health insurance, and pension benefits enjoyed by athletes in other major sports like the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB. Until now. The

USTPO patent pending blueprint for insuring and pensioning boxers nationally has finally come to fruition.

This evolutionary jump in the business of boxing became possible when the pioneering boxing promotional company, BAKA Enterprises of Florida, LLC committed itself to raising the ante for the world's hardest sport.

Oscar Osborn of BAKA Enterprises of Florida, LLC in conjunction with Angel Rodriguez will now begin activating health insurance, life insurance, and pension benefits for the main event boxers on all future BAKA Enterprises of Florida, LLC bouts held in Florida. In addition to activating these unprecedented benefits, both Mr. Osborn and Mr. Rodriguez will be educating the boxers, boxers' families, and management on the use of their pension and insurance benefits respectively. The next such fight card in which all of these history making upgrades will take effect, is slated to occur at Delray Beach, Florida, in late September or early October.

It is in the pro-active spirit of Senator John McClain, who has nobly attempted to reform the sport through legislation and creation of a national Boxing Commission, that BAKA Enterprises of FL, LLC and Mr. Rodriguez will show the sport how to heal itself in a responsible manner that helps everyone involved in the process. Everybody from the boxers to the managers to the cable networks to the promoters will benefit physically and/or financially. It is also in the spirit of the unparalleled yet to be released documentary, "A Boxer's Nightmare", filmed by Jacob Duran and Jon Barthouse, that this measure will be taken.

In the documentary on fighter safety "A Boxer's Nightmare," Nevada State Athletic Commissioner Mark Ratner, promoters Tony Holden and Mills Lane, Mike Tyson, Nevada Athletic Commissioners chief physicians Margaret Goodman and Flip Homansky, Fernando Vargas, and many other boxing luminaries were all filmed stating that the sport's most pressing needs are insurance and pension benefits. If everyone from the four-round fighter to the kingmakers of the sport agreed to be filmed unanimously calling for pension and insurance benefits, then the time has come to usher the sport into the 21st century.

Consequently, every future BAKA Promotions fight card will include a health and life insurance policy with unprecedented twenty four hour coverage for the bout's main event boxers. This coverage is in effect when the fighter is permanently incapacitated as a result of a ring war, as Gerald McClellan was in his duel with Nigel Benn. The coverage will also pay for a boxer hurt in a non-boxing related incident, as Hasim Rahman was when his car was 'T-boned' after winning the heavyweight championship.

The boxers will be covered by a comprehensive PPO health insurance plan that is also in effect if the boxer is hurt out of his or her home state. This completely thorough health insurance coverage is unprecedented in the history of boxing despite it being a standard benefit enjoyed by every pro linebacker, outfielder, or power forward competing today.

The adjoining insurance benefit would be a life insurance policy that will pay a death claim whether the fighter dies in the ring or on the road. Had Bernard Hopkins not been able to escape the mob that chased him through Roberto Clemente Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mrs. Hopkins would have been paid a death claim even though the cause of death was non-ring related. The same goes for junior welterweight Vivian Harris or super middleweight Vinny Paz had their respective stabbing and car accident left them dead.

The boxer's widows and surviving families, such as the recently deceased Alcazar, Beethavean Scottland and Bobby Tomasiello, would have also received a death benefit after their husbands died as a result of severe ring beatings last year. A boxer will now be protected at or away from the workplace just as millions of workers in less dangerous professions are.

Just as important to the well being of the fighter is his or her financial health and strength. The harsh reality of professional pugilism involves hundreds of thousands of boxers, who may or may not be former shells of themselves, retiring dead broke in their early thirties from the only marketplace that they are skilled in. This reality applies equally to fighters who made $4,000 in their whole career or $4,000,000.

Unlike many professionals in other industries who are great at their job, yet terrible at handling their finances, boxers do not enjoy the expertise of financial consultants to guide them into post-retirement financial prosperity. It is because of this bleak future awaiting over 77% of the sport's sole moneymakers that BAKA Enterprises of Florida, LLC will design and activate a pension benefit for its main event fighters, at no charge to the athletes.

The boxers and their management will also be assisted in the future use or upgrade of the benefits activated by Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Osborn, even when fighting elseswhere. BAKA Enterprises of Florida, LLC will foot the bill for the insurance and pension benefits for the upcoming fight this autumn, only to later rely on future gate proceeds to fund the fighter's benefits.

If you would like to learn more, comment, interview, or participate about and in this event, benefits, or principals please call or email:

Oscar Osborn at (813) 654-6973, Osmobo and/or Angel Rodriguez at (407) 484-5150, Angel@RingTalk.com