A vicious left hook, and Jin Sasaki went flat on the canvas. And it was so brutal, reports suggest Sasaki suffered a short-term memory loss. He couldn’t recall anything that occurred during the last one and a half months! Delivering a potential ‘Knockout of the Year,‘ Brian Norman Jr., who flew down to Tokyo, stopped the Japanese welterweight in the fifth round of his second title defense.

Jin Sasaki has been responding to the medical care. However, reports that he forgot what happened on fight night and the days prior have been gaining considerable traction. Several fans were thrown back in time. Sixteen years ago, Manny Pacquiao’s deadly left hook pulled the plug on Ricky Hatton’s career. The knockout was so powerful, the British boxer could barely recognize Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie when they came to meet him post-fight.

Jin Sasaki left with a memory gap after brutal KO

Check out a few reports. @EverythingBoxing cited information received from ‘Daily Online,’ a Japanese sports and entertainment handle. “Jin Sasaki doesn’t remember anything that happened in the last 6 weeks of his life after waking up from his KO loss to Brian Norman Jr. this morning,” its tweet read.

Jin Sasaki’s gym released a statement: “Sasaki Tsutomu was taken to the hospital after the match and underwent a CT scan. There were no injuries, such as bleeding. However, he hit the back of his head hard and is currently losing his memory. There were no visible physical injuries, but we will be keeping an eye on him, and he will be going back to the hospital tomorrow for another checkup.”

So, more than the punch itself, the way he hit the floor seemingly hurt the 23-year-old fighter from Tokyo. It seems, Jin Sasaki was conscious and ‘able to talk’ while being carried out on the stretcher. Issei Nakaya, the gym president, accompanied Sasaki to the hospital. He recalled the young fighter saying, “I don’t even remember that this title match was being decided.”

A search reveals Jin Sasaki’s case closely matches the medical condition called retrograde amnesia. It is the loss of memories formed ‘before’ a traumatic event.

The past bleeding into the present

One of the most prominent examples of short-term memory loss in recent times appears to be that of Danny Williams. The American heavyweight had challenged champion Vitali Klitschko for his first title defense back in December 2004. Williams suffered knockdowns in the first, third, and seventh rounds. His misery finally came to an end in the eighth round when Klitschko’s deadly combos left him answerless.

Subsequent reports suggest that Danny Williams was unable to recall the knockdown and the sequence of events that followed the third knockdown.

A few weeks ago, concern gripped Japanese boxing. One of the reputed fighters, former mini-flyweight title holder Ginjiro Shigeoka, needed urgent medical attention following the rematch with Pedro Taduran. As in the previous edition, the fight went the whole distance. However, by the time the fight ended, Shigeoka collapsed and had to be hospitalized.

Let’s hope Jin Sasaki recovers well. He is a young man who still has lots of boxing left in him.

Now that Jaron Ennis has moved to 154 pounds, who, in your opinion, is the right matchup for Norman Jr.?