Fighter in medically induced coma after Saturday night

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By Rick Reeno

Russian puncher Magomed Abdusalamov took a turn for the worse earlier this morning. On Saturday night, Magomed (18-1, 18KOs) suffered numerous injuries during his ten round decision loss to Cuba's Mike Perez (20-0, 12KOs) at the Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden. There were plenty of power punches thrown and landed by both fighters in their HBO televised showcase, but Perez racked up the points to win on scores of 97-92, 95-94 and 97-92.

Earlier today, BoxingScene.com reported that during the fight Magomed broke his left hand, broke his nose and he was taken to a local hospital where a small blood clot was discovered on the brain.

Late last night, Magomed's manager, Boris Grinberg, told BoxingScene the fighter was doing fine after doctors tended to his injuires. But a few hours later the boxer began to complain of bad headaches and was feeling ill. Doctors at Roosevelt Hospital placed him in a medically induced coma to reduce the possibility of any serious complications stemming from the blood clot.

Magomed's exact condiction won't be known until Monday. His promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, is on his way to Thailand for the WBC's convention and is unavailable for comment.

 

That's friggen' rough man. Nothing like standing toe to toe exchanging blow for blow, losing, and then having the loss haunt your health afterwards. Hope he recovers fully without any more complications and has the option to do whatever he wants soon.

 

First Frankie Leal dies and now 2 weeks later this happens. Who's responsibility should it be to save some of these fighters from themselves? Sometimes they go through war and wind up ok, sometimes we are hearing of their death. This is why IMO guys like Floyd, Ward, Hopkins, etc might be boring... but they can still talk.

 

Boxing needs to have the amount of rounds reduced. It really does. Ten rounds of having your head pummelled isn't going to do anyone any good. Especially at the power fighters can hit each other.

 

Jeez man. Part of you can't help but think things like Boxing are stupid as hell with the kind of injuries they can cause, but a part of you can't help but recognize and respect the willpower and courage of these guys as well.

 

What is most frustrating to me is that fans complain about a guy being boring because he cares about his health and winning so he is a defensive fighter while most of the so called fans never even have sparred... let alone getting into a ring, and they have the nerve to call someone a quitter. They act as if these fighters owe us something. It's pretty simple to me, just don't buy a ticket or watch the fight on tv.

 

that's right... especially adding roids into into the mix like so many guys are getting busted with over the last few years.. it's very hard to say what should be done. Bigger gloves? Less rounds? who knows?

 

Trust me when I say I know what you're saying, unfortunate enough as it is for me. As much as I want to hop back into boxing my head is in a bad spot and my common sense is going to override that desire to get back into things. There's nothing but respect for somebody who trains enough to reach a professional level and compete, no matter how boring their fights are. When you step in a ring where striking is involved you are putting yourself in a situation where you can potentially lose your health, mental abilities, and sometimes your life.

 

Head is in a bad spot like medically?

 

Yeah. I don't want to be taking any more good dings to my head any time soon. Part of the reason my symptoms have been so bad from the TBI I got involve a nice dose of PTSD which cause intense enough anxiety/panic attacks where I break out into cold sweats and start shaking/get exhausted. The actual symptoms from the head injury (being injured neck, intense headaches, disorientation, slurred speech, hard time focusing) honestly don't scare me as much as the compounded effect from my other health issues. I've been able to deal with the anxiety attacks from the PTSD before I got knocked out which I credit an active and healthy lifestyle being the reason. After the head injury and lack of being able to do much of anything it has caused my mental fortitude to pretty much disappear. I've lost my ability to overcome the anxiety.

My situation is a bit unique, but plenty of people who receive multiple head injuries experience the same thing. Actual competitive Boxing (or any striking sport allowing hits to the head) is certainly not good for your health.

 

I know, 10 rounds is crazy. Especially without some form of head protection. Pro Boxing either needs to reduce its rounds or incorporate head gear. I'm not sure if heavier gloves would lessen the impact of blows to the head (my guess would be no).

 

That's a shame man... sorry to hear about all of that going on with you, was this due to the KO alone or just a combination of other injuries?

 

Both. The TBI from the KO was the coup de' grace though. I got off lucky as far as the MRI and CT scans for the TBI went, no blood or anything. Didn't save me from what they call 'Post Concussion Syndrome' though. Not to mention I was probably walking around with a lingering head injury from an IED blast on top of it. Pretty big 'derp derp' moment of my life.

 

Yes, I can imagine some of those things... obviously not all of them. How long ago was the blast? I am guessing this was in Afghanistan or Iraq?

 

Afghanistan. Happened in late 2011, didn't even know I had a TBI from it but I had lost conscious for a moment and couldn't make sense of all the yelling going on. I thought the people yelling were speaking in Pashto and we were being ambushed. Took me a few moments to regain my bearing.

Anyway, concussions from overpressure (blast wave) are different than a blunt trauma concussion and the symptoms linger in a different way. I probably hadn't fully recovered from it when I started boxing in 2012 and getting dinged on the head constantly probably wasn't helping much. I didn't know some of the things I was experiencing up until the KO (ringing in the ears, anxiety, sometimes disorientation) were signs of lingering TBI symptoms and my ignorance probably came back and bit me in the ass when I got KOed.

 

Latest:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ighter-abdusalamov-has-brain-surgery/3429595/

 

Fighter now suffers a stroke and is on life support.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...lamov-suffers-stroke-on-life-support/3450885/

 

Sorry, on my phone and not to good with copy and paste on it

 

It had already been reduced. From 15 rounds for a championship fight down to 12 after the unfortunate death that resulted from the Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini fight with a South Korean national.

Supposedly, studies had shown a lot of damage occuring during the 13th - 15th rounds.

 

Anyone have the latest on Magomed Abdusalamov? Trying to find chronologically correct info on the net is enough for a blood-clot in itself