Over the years, fans have witnessed many potential future champions losing their lives at a very young age in this brutal sport of boxing. Here, we take a look at young boxers who died from suffering damage in the ring.
On Aug 28, 2021, Jeanette Zapata clashed against Marie Houle, where she suffered several lethal blows to the head. Zapata appeared to have a seizure after the fight was stopped at the end of the fourth round. She was immediately taken to the hospital, and five days later, Zapata passed away on Sept 3, 2021.
On Jul 20, 2019, Hugo Alfredo Santillan collapsed while the judges' scorecards were being officially announced for his fight against Eduardo Abreu. As a result, Santillan immediately underwent surgery for a clot in his brain and twice went into cardiorespiratory failure before he died of cardiac arrest on Jul 25, 2019.
Braydon Smith lost a 10-round unanimous decision to John Moralde. Smith lost consciousness 90 minutes later at Toowoomba Hospital and died after spending two days in a medically induced coma at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, on Mar 14, 2015.
Patrick Day suffered a traumatic brain injury during a knockout loss in his USBA super welterweight title bout on Oct 12, 2019, against Charles Conwell. The final knockdown that stopped the fight saw Day's head violently hitting the canvas. He died four days later, on Oct 16, 2019.
In his IBF light-welterweight title elimination bout against Subriel Matias, on Jul 19, 2019, Maxim Dadashev's trainer asked the referee to stop the fight in the 11th round. Dadashev collapsed and immediately underwent emergency brain surgery. He was placed into a coma before dying three days later due to cerebral edema.