The physical toll of athletics

This is copied from the "if you must..." section, and it is boxing related, but I want to tie it to baseball, Darryl Kile, and medicine in baseball ----

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A few things - Did everyone lose the first round of the fight on PPV?
Anyway... for those of you who shelled out the 39.95 (Sal and Me apparrently), on the undercard there was a fight between WBO 112 lb champion Fernando Montiel and WBO 115 lb Champion Pedro Alcazar. For those of you who missed the fight, Montiel danced and dominated 3 of the first 4 rounds, but Alcazar started in with a solid body attack in the 4th and began to slow Montiel down. However, Alcazar slowed WAY down in the 5th, and in the 6th didn't throw a punch, just blocked. The ref stopped the fight, and awarded Montiel the title at 115. Alcazar looked crushed and started crying. However, Alcazar recovered and spent Sunday sightseeing.
Pedro Alcazar died in his Vegas Hotel Room today. Pedro Alcazar was 26.
http://espn.go.com/boxing/news/2002/0624/1398524.html

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I want to relate this to Darryl Kyle, because in a way, both are related, and I'd like some comment. Few of us can ever know the pain that athletes, boxers, football players, baseball players, or others, go through each day in a quest to perform. There's aches and pains involved in the contests that athletes brush off in a quest to continue. In Alcazar's case, he got immediately sluggish in the ring. In Kile's case, he complained of shoulder pain the night before. Both attributed it to the normal aches, pains, wear, and tears of sporting life.

One of the great surprises to me is that athletes in professional sports are not subject to constant mandatory testing at the hands of team physicians. Not for "death prevention" per se... but rather for the sake of human safety.

Does anyone know what advances have been made in the recent years in terms of constant physicals, heart and body system monitoring, and general athlete maintenance with regard to prevention of injuries, not reaction to them?

-Cp