I was on an airplane flight recently that was delayed a fairly long time because of a mechanical problem. As annoying as the delay was, I never got the urge to jump out and see if I could fix it.

I don't know a thing about repairing airplane engines.

It seems a pretty simple concept. I haven't the foggiest notion of how a jet engine works and I would do far more harm than good.

And I suspect that despite his interest, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., doesn't know a thing about boxing. But he keeps insisting on trying to fix it.

Two boxers have died in bouts in Las Vegas in 2005, a figure that, as best as can be determined, represents 40 percent of the total boxing deaths worldwide this year. That, of course, has brought the usual howls of protest from Congress.

But in a surprising show of good sense, the House voted 233-190 on Wednesday against forming a U.S. Boxing Commission, though many representatives were seething with anger at the outcome. All three of Nevada's representatives, Shelly Berkley, Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons, voted for the bill.

Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., was one of those who expressing outrage, though I would be willing to bet he couldn't name one fighter who has died in the last 10 years.

After the vote went against him, Osborne said, "How many people have to die? How many people have to have their brains scrambled? ... We wouldn't do this with animals."

It goes without saying that two deaths is two too many. But Osborne's angst is a load of self-serving manure designed to get him easy support from the folks back home. Who isn't for preventing young men or women from being beaten to death?

But Rep. Osborne, formerly Coach Osborne of the powerful Nebraska Cornhuskers, either didn't know or didn't care about the facts when he voted.

According to an April 29, 1991, Sports Illustrated article, 291 young men died while playing football in the United States between 1967 and 1990.

I wonder if Rep. Osborne knew that, according to the Journal of Combative Sport, there were 175 deaths worldwide related to boxing in that same period.

But Rep. Osborne, who became an icon (not to mention a very rich and powerful man) by coaching football, didn't tell you that 116 fewer persons died worldwide as a result of boxing than died in the U.S. as a result of football in that same 24-year time period.

This is not to minimize what has happened in Nevada boxing rings in 2005. Working conditions have to be made safer for boxers and Gov. Kenny Guinn ought to think very seriously about that each time he makes an appointment to the Nevada Athletic Commission.

I'm still trying to figure what qualifications T.J. Day, the governor's latest appointee, has other than being a large political donor.

Day described himself as an avid fan and a fast learner, but are those qualities enough to earn him a seat on the world's foremost boxing regulatory body at a time when fighters are dying and being seriously injured in the state at a record pace?

Since Martin Sanchez and Leavander Johnson have died in fights in Las Vegas, there has been considerable talk about what can be done to make boxing safer.

One of the goals of a federal commission would be to outlaw mismatches. But while that would be good for paying customers who goes to a bout hoping to see a competitive match, it wouldn't do much to save fighters.

There are no absolutes, but fighters don't die as a result of mismatches. They die when their competitive nature won't let them quit and they meet someone just a little stronger, a little faster and a little better.

In a mismatch, the overmatched fighter is overwhelmed quickly and beaten early. In an evenly matched bout, the risk is that a man will take punishment round after round.

Of the eight deaths that have occurred in Nevada since 1975, none came earlier than the fifth round. Those fights ended in the fifth, sixth, ninth (twice), 10th (twice), 11th and 14th rounds.

Johnson was allowed to fight in Nevada despite absorbing a brutal beating in a 2003 fight with Javier Jaureugi.

And it didn't raise any red flags that before his fatal fight with Jesus Chavez, Johnson couldn't remember the names of his four children.

Perhaps he had other things on his mind, but perhaps it's just as likely that the Jaureugi fight damaged him so much that he shouldn't have been allowed to fight again.

We'll never know.

What we do know is there is much that can be done to lessen the frequency with which fighters die or suffer career-ending injuries.

But Sen. McCain and Rep. Osborne and their like, who haven't figured a way to solve the far greater problem of U.S. soldiers dying needlessly in Iraq, aren't the ones to solve boxing's problems.

Kevin Iole's boxing column is published Saturday. Reach him at 396-4428 or at kiole@reviewjournal.com.