He was only 24 when he died. He passed away 3 days after his fight with Martin. Supposedly he took a bad beating? There is hardly any information on it. Does anyone know exactly what his cause of death was? That's sad he died so young. He had sick power. He just seemed way under developed for the level of competition he was facing.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1965/05/14/page/64/article/fight-injury-is-fatal-to-sonny-banks - This is pretty much all I could find, like you said there's really not much information anywhere on it.
I think Mclellen suffered from the same exact medical issue, but made it to the hospital faster and had better treatment. I have a theory on these guy injuries. I think it's possible that they punched themselves out. I think it's possible that they punched so hard that they messed up their own heads, making them sensitive to getting hit. It's kind of like their power was too much for their frame.
Does anyone think hypothetically, if Banks were to have done a modern brain scan before the Martin fight, they would have found something?
I recall seeing the Clay fight and hearing the commentary go on about his right hand, his left hand looked the danger punch to me. He looked very sharp and powerful when he dropped Clay. Clay looked pretty amazing himself though when he got up from that knockdown and proceeded to give Jones a good whipping.....
Banks was too underdeveloped for the raw abilities he had. https://streamable.com/v4zy0 Look how big Banks punches are. Not just the KD punch but the punches he throws before too. https://streamable.com/1r60c He would never have a record like 18-7 in the modern game.
Sad that Banks, Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston, and Leotis Martin are all linked together in boxing history by this fatality in some way.
