The world of boxing was about to change at Caesars Palace, Nevada. On Saturday night, November 13th, 1982, World Lightweight champion Ray Mancini met the South Korean challenger Kim Duk-Koo for a 15-round match.

To everyone’s surprise, the South Korean gave a tough fight to the American. Mancini won when towards the end of the 14th round his right punch knocked down Kim, forcing the referee to stop the match.

Despite getting up, Kim’s condition worsened. Hospitalized, he died five days later due to a brain injury. The incident sparked widespread criticism when it became clear that the Asian challenger had never participated in a 15-round match.

Read More: ‘The Kazakh’s Life is in Danger…’: Boxing World Saddened After Seeing Aidos Yerbossynuly in Sorry State

The traumatic event had the governing bodies of boxing take the issue of boxers’ safety more seriously. One of the first measures was a universal reduction of rounds from 15 to 12 in professional boxing. Likewise, fighters were to undergo medical check-ups before each fight to confirm their fitness.

It took a tragedy to change the rules in boxing. Yet, it remains a sport where even minor injuries could become life-threatening.

Aidos Yerbossynuly: The Central Asian Challenge

WBA Regular Super Middleweight champion David Morrell Jr. met Aidos Yerbossynuly of Kazakhstan on November 5th at Minneapolis Armory in Minnesota.

The match went right up to the 12th round. In the final round, Morrell knocked out his Central Asian adversary with the right uppercut. The American’s vicious hammering started to take a toll on Aidos’ body. His condition started deteriorating as the fight reached the last set of rounds.

According to David Morrell’s coach Ronnie Shields, the referee Tony Weeks should have acted promptly and stopped the fight. Allowing it to continue turned the situation for the worse.

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He told BoxingScene.com, “That fight should’ve been stopped sooner.” “They let this kid take way too much punishment. But even the referee, and Tony Weeks is a really good ref, but sometimes you’ve gotta go to the corner and say, ‘Hey man, y’all need to stop this.’ And that’s when [Yerbossynuly] started fighting dirty, because he didn’t wanna get knocked out.”

Taken to hospital, Aidos Yerbossynuly soon fell into a coma because of bleeding inside the brain, medically called a subdural hematoma.

Shields continued, “It was all pride. “I commend the guy for taking all that punishment, but you’ve gotta save guys from themselves. He took way too many punches. And you know what? This kid might never be able to fight again. That’s how bad it was.”

Even David Morrell agrees with his coach. He said, “I was surprised by plenty of things, including [that] he was trying to elbow me. “Also like the head-butts that he was doing. The ref kept trying to separate us and I was like, ‘OK. You’re gonna keep doing that, then we’re gonna keep going.’ You know, but I kept doing my thing.” He immediately rushed to assist the referee in holding Aidos when the latter fell.

Hoping for a speedy recovery, we extend our best wishes to Aidos Yerbossynuly and look forward to the champion bringing his mettle back to the squared circle.

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