Magomed Abdusalamov career over

I'll agree with you here after watching some of the later rounds myself. I do think that there seemed to be a visible delay in executing his abilities in the later rounds (looking sluggish) but we're talking about really big guys who tend to look that way anyways.

The way he was treated afterwards was atrocious though. There's no reason he shouldn't have been immediately given one of the two ambulances standing by and the way he was treated in the ER was terrible as well. I still think this situation was avoided.

All in all while this is a tragedy, I think stories like this one need to come to light (because I'm sure it happens a lot more often, to lesser degrees) and you need to have to do a paper/study on it in order to be in the corner of a fighter. I feel like they really let this man down.

 

And people are stupid to do so. It's not a situation most people would have any clue about. The only way people would acknowledge throwing in the towel is if it were something like a Rocky fight, and being screwed up bad enough just doesn't look anywhere near as glorious.

 

Yep, I used to argue with people all the time about this subject. There were some who were calling Cotto a quitter and all of that after his first fight with cheato... however, we all know it turns out that he likely had loaded gloves, no one would have known about that and had Cotto continued, he might have gotten hurt very badly or killed. People love a gladiator, but those cheers stop and many have since to have wound up like Ali or worse. I can't help but think about Meldrick Taylor vs. Chavez Sr. Poor Taylor was never the same and never even got his moment of glory out of it.

 

Yes, he clearly should have, in retrospect; however, I can see where denial takes hold of a fighter and even his camp causing all involved to misunderstand the seriousness of injuries.

I think I'd mentioned in my scraped post that our club owner left one fight with a broken jaw, a fractured hand, a swollen face and unable to see out of one eye due to the eye swollen shut and he wanted nothing of getting into an ambulance. Even after blood was found in his urine, he refused to go by ambulance and had to be rushed via private car.

You'd be surprised but many times your not aware of just how bad you're dinged - swelling produces numbness and the adrenaline is sometimes still flowing.

These guys are pro fighters, they are used to getting hit hard and have developed the stamina that one needs in order to get back to one's feet after a knock-down and unfortunately, blood clots that form in the brain cavity sometimes do not produce the excruciating pain as they do in an arm or leg - for anyone who's ever had a clot in their leg.

So without that signal that there is something unusually wrong, something seriously wrong, they feel like they've often felt before - hammered, numb, headaches, nausea, broken nose/jaw...it feels no different than all the other times before...at first.

So, imagine you are the inspector and you've found blood in a fighter's urine indicating some sort of internal injury and this fighter has been arguing to the point of belligerence or at least uncooperative at the prospect of going by ambulance .... "Nah, I don't need one, I SAID!" And maybe his trainer/corner realises how bad it is ( no, its not always plain-as-one's-face obvious when its happening ) and he calmly tells his fighter in a low, matter-of-fact voice " come on, lets just go get checked out, just to be sure, we'll get you in and out in no time...come on, I'll take you down"

Have you ever had to manage getting a grandfather or uncle whom you know is having a heart attack to go to the hospital when they are in denial about what is happening? You have to make it really easy for them, downplay it all, offer to drive them, else they will flat out refuse.

Of course, we don't know that was the way it went or not.

The article that SIB printed suggested that Magomed and his team were just left to fend for themselves - and I believe that at some point they were abandoned. The article that I linked to suggested a scenario that the inspector in question was the one who finally was able to make Abdusalamov and his team even concede a hospital visit to begin with.

The inspector may not have know something so obvious as where the nearest treatment centre was simply because the thought that any fighters sustaining bad enough injuries would logically be expected t0 take the ambulance sitting right outside.

The inspector sounds, if anything, inexperienced.

 

I have often wondered too if the language barrier causes confusion with some of the fighters, trainers, doctors, etc.

 

I've seen some very bad refereeing in MMA, but not to the full stupidity of boxing. At least in MMA, they have a chosen amount of refs... each ref has been in the ring with most or all of the fighters previously and that helps them IMO to look for the signs of when to stop a fight. In boxing however, the ref gets so much stuff for stopping a fight prematurely that many of them I think fear the backlash of it and so give a guy to many chances.

Take Cotto vs. Malignaggi. Paulie is a jab and mover with little power. The fight was held at 140 and while some had the fight fairly close, I didn't myself. Paulie had a broken orbital bone and I believe jaw as well though don't quote me there. Either way, the ref should have looked at him and known that with 6 KO's it wasn't likely that he was going to win the fight with one punch and enough was enough. Cotto was undefeated and a monster 140 lb fighter with I think around and 85-90% KO ratio. I guess common sense just doesn't apply with some people.

 

The overall ( there's an exception or two ) quality of the ref's really add to the professionalism of the UFC. If you ever have the chance to participate or attend a local MMA event you'll see what I mean.

 

Update on Mago's condition and his family to sue for 100 million dollars.


The family of brain-damaged boxer Magomed Abdusalamov will soon file a lawsuit against the New York State Athletic Commission seeking $100 million in damages, charging the state with disregard for his safety and providing slapdash medical attention following his November bout at Madison Square Garden.

The family has already filed a notice of claim with the New York State Court of Claims on Jan. 28 -- a prerequisite to suing the state directly, although it is also likely the family will file a suit against the individual commission doctors in New York Supreme Court, according to the family’s lawyer, Paul Edelstein.

The Brooklyn-based Edelstein anticipates filing the lawsuits “probably in two to three weeks” and is waiting for the fighter’s wife, Bakanay, to receive sole guardianship over her husband since Abdusalamov, in his current state, is not mentally competent to file his own suit, Edelstein said.

The news of the pending lawsuit was first reported by ESPN’s Outside the Lines.

The Russian heavyweight Abdusalamov was beaten severely in his Nov. 2 match with Mike Perez, suffering a broken jaw and hand in losing a unanimous decision. Following the match, he had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain and was put in a medically-induced coma where he remained for several weeks.

“There’s what happened to him in the ring, which is something that one would expect in a boxing match -- people get hurt and boxers assume that risk -- but boxers don’t assume the risk that after the fight they’re not going to get proper medical care and that’s really what happened,” Edelstein said in a phone interview on Saturday.

The boxer’s family alleges in court papers that commission officials allowed him to be “violently beaten, bludgeoned, punched and pummeled by his opponent without proper, timely or adequate recognition, termination and or/rescue” and that he was “permitted to sustain life threatening injuries…due to the improper, untimely and inadequate medical care” on behalf of the state athletic commission.



Abdusalamov remains at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, NY, where he can barely move or talk, has lost considerable weight and recently had reconstructive surgery on his skull, according to Nathan Lewkowicz, Abdusalamov’s former promoter.

“The expectation is that he’s going to have severe brain damage,” Edelstein said. “My opinion is that it’s pretty likely that he’s going to need care for the rest of his life and maybe significant care.”

Abdusalamov's manager, Boris Grinberg, has blasted the state commission for rushing him through its post-fight examination that night and sending him on his way without directing him immediately to a hospital or a waiting ambulance.

Several sources close to the commission disputed that account however, telling the Daily News in November that Abdusalamov was carefully examined during and after the fight and that he showed no signs of sustaining life-threatening injuries at the time he was examined.

After getting his cuts stitched up by the state commission doctors in his dressing room and giving a urine sample, Abdusalamov vomited upon leaving the Garden and was taken in a cab to a nearby hospital by his handlers where he suffered a stroke and had emergency surgery roughly two hours after his fight, Edelstein said.

Edelstein contends that if Abdusalamov had been directed to an ambulance by the commission doctors and had the emergency surgery sooner, the operating doctors “very likely would have had a chance to stop the major damage from occurring. It certainly wouldn’t have been what he has now,” Edelstein said. “All of this precious time is lost.”

The state’s inspector general’s office is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the fight, including interviews with doctors and commission members. The office is expected to release its report shortly, Lewkowicz said.

“They would be wise to settle the case,” Edelstein said of the state. “Because to some degree it’s going to expose just an egregious lack of care for the fighters that really exists industry-wide, if you ask me. And it’s also going to expose the financial aspect of the boxing world and that the boxer is at the low-end of the totem pole. There’s a lot of money being made off of these boxers at Madison Square Garden and he didn’t get any care. It’s outrageous.”

The family, including Abdusalamov's wife Bakanay, is seeking damages for “loss of services and loss of consortium of her husband and for medical expenses” in the amount of $100 million, according to a copy of the court documents.

“It’s a situation where you sue for a lot and hope to get some of that,” Lewkowicz said.

Edelstein said the fighter’s medical bills currently total “roughly three quarters of a million dollars. And that’s three months in.”

Abdusalamov, dubbed the “Russian Tyson” because of his punching power, entered the fight sporting a record of 18-0 with 18 knockouts while Perez was 19-0 with 12 stoppages. The match was viewed as a rare crossroads heavyweight fight to determine a possible title shot for the winner. And from the beginning, it was a slugfest, with both fighters pounding away in close quarters before a national audience on HBO. For a public used to lumbering, ineffectual heavyweights, the fast-paced action was a pleasant surprise. Still, Abdusalamov appeared to be getting the worst of it and midway through the fight, he started to complain to his corner of the condition of his face, which was getting more swollen with each passing round, Lewkowicz said.

A phone message and Email left with the New York State Athletic Commission wasn’t immediately returned.

 

the way i see it this is on the doctors, after his face swelled up like that (clearly indicating serious injury) the fight should have been stopped.

they're there to stop this exact thing from happening and they failed. i normally don't like to blame doctors but his face was enourmous. theres no way to miss that.

 

Yep, not to mention the fact that they said he wasn't very responsive in the corner (not the exact words, but something like it).