RIP. My condolences to to him and his family. This is just another example of why boxing is such a brutal sport and why people shouldn't take boxing lightly. So many fighters put their lives on the line every time they step in the ring. I haven't watched that fight yet. Was the beating in that fight really that bad?
Matias, I also feel terrible for. Here this kid has his own dream he's fighting for, wins the biggest fight in his career in a breakout performance, and right when he should be feeling on top of the world, this happens. I didn't know much about Matias going in to it, but I was a fan of his by the end of it.
It's difficult because you, I and others were in the RbR and didn't object to the fight continuing into the 11th. I think we basically all thought it should be stopped at the end of that round, but we don't know when the damage occurred. He fought fairly well until the 10th, probably the earliest any corner would have considered pulling him out. I agree with you in principle but don't know how anyone could enforce these instances beyond reactionary approaches. (And I think we all agreed the other night that they should have taken him out on a stretcher immediately.) The best case would be to have some kind of mobile, fast-operating brain scan that could detect a problem early between rounds. But I don't think that's realistic at the moment. The doctor can do everything right but not become aware of the symptoms until it's too late.
My other thought on this is that ESPN needs to never, ever show a fighter in distress like that ever again. I objected to it at the time precisely for this season; his kids are going to end watching that one day. It's too personal and should be off limits.
I think a towel could have gone in during the 11th. And yeah, if there had been a corner retirement after R10, some neanderthals would have whined about it being a "quit job" or whatever...but, the hell with them. I wouldn't have minded by that point (although you're correct, that neither I nor anybody else in the RBR was actively calling for it). Making these determinations (on time, which is the important thing) is such a tough call...Dadashev had even won a round as recently as the 8th, FFS...
It was a lot of sustained punishment, but the problem is Dadashev was landing just enough cleanly to justify not stopping it sooner. The last corner shot before Buddy pulled him out is even more heartbreaking because Dadashev was ready to go back out for the 12th despite being in dire straits. I'm no doctor, but it didn't come off as a fatality-inducing beating (and, unfortunately, I've seen too many). The Stevenson-Gvozdyk ending looked worse, honestly. What probably put it over the top is he was severely dehydrated, which also means the fluid level around his brain was lower than it should've been. Edit: This is speculation on my part, but looking at the totality of it all, I would wager he had a hell of a time making weight...a lot of the side effects I saw in the fight are byproducts of a bad weight drain which, combined with a hungry young power puncher like Matias, is a recipe for disaster. Another sad irony is that had he had a glass chin and been KO'd earlier, it probably would've saved his life. Mad Max was too tough for his own good...
May he rest in peace and may his family be at ease. Ameen. I did not even know of this fighter until fight night, but I remember seeing a couple of things that did not look "okay" in medical terms. 1. He looked sickly in the ring. If a fighter looks faint and unsteady after the fight has ended, get him to lay down and get the EMT's to check everything out. 2. When he was walking back to his locker room he sort of collapsed and one of his team members was literally carrying him somewhere (locker room?). This is some third-world stupid type of "care". I have seen better care in sh!thole countries like Pakistan (parents are from there). Anyone with an atom's worth of a brain would again let him lay down and call for the ETM's to do their job. Do you really think carrying around a slumped and semi-conscious fighter is actually going to do him any good? What do we all learn in school and in the workplace?... To leave someone as they are until the EMT's arrive. Dragging their limp bodies around here and there is very much counterproductive and uninformed. Notice, I have only referred to Maxim Dadashev as a fighter and nothing else on this post, because that is what he was to the last day, a fighter. Rest in peace brother. Ameen
