As people have commented, the pre-flight bluster seems mostly staged in an effort to sell tickets and drum up media interest. I find such artificial posturing boring and obvious, and would have thought such posturing tended to put people off rather than attract people to watch.
As to boxing itself, there is no doubt that it formalises and legitimises violence for entertainment and gratification, as well as offering the participants the very real prospect of significant brain damage, so to that extent I dislike it - but there is no denying that boxing training is extremely good physical conditioning, and being able to box offers a good basic self defence system.
So continuing monitoring of professional and amateur boxing, ensuring that safety headgear is worn,and the presence of medically-trained observers to supervise the action, together with restrictions on the length of bouts are all aimed at reducing that risk, which I think is fair enough.
@AoG - Do you disagree with other martial arts, such as Karate or TaeKwonDo, or the Mixed Martial Arts bouts and fights that seem to be increasingly popular? Personally I think MMA is a much worse example for kids than boxing...