Besides the Benny Parret and Emile Griffith fight and the one involving Max Baer, I'm trying to think of other fighters who died as a result of fights. And which weight classes do those tragedies tend to happen?
Sam Baroudi Kim Duk Koo Jimmy Doyle Bull Young 2 deaths were from Baer, Campbell and a sparring partner. He also pretty much gave Schaaf brain damage before Carnera beat him.
Hundreds and hundreds, unfortunately. Here's a list which includes both amateur and pro fights up until 2007: https://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth_b_0700_archive.htm
Willie Classen, a New York middleweight in the 1970s, from a fight with Wilford Scypion. Johnny Owen, the Merthyr Matchstick, a Welsh bantam, from a title fight with Lupe Pintor in 1980. Each stayed alive more than a week after the fight in intensive care/coma before passing.
I read up on the Scypion-Classen fight a while back and it infuriated me. Willie Classen suffered three KO losses in 7 months preceding his tragic death, to John LoCicero, Tony Sibson and ultimately Scypion all of who could punch and were a class above Willle. He definitely didn't have enough time to recover after being blasted out by Sibson in 2 rounds and meeting Scypion again a month later. That was the bad old days before a fighters welfare was even considered. Classen actually got lifted off his stool and pushed out for the final round by his corner because he was in such bad shape (which is awful), the referee didn't do his job and stop the fight when he clearly saw he was badly hurt the round before and at the start of the 10th (which is terrible) and when he collapsed there wasn't even an ambulance on site and someone had to hail one on the street (which is disgusting). I get mad about boxing as a sport when I think of this fight. Poor Willie was treated like a piece of meat and never had a chance with callous *******s in his corner an incompetent referee and negligent promoters involved in the fight.
Joe Bugner and Barry McGuigan both unfortunately had opponents die at their hands. What a terrible experience to suffer.
A couple of fighters called Chuck Wilburn and Roko Spanja both tragically dies at the hands of Hector Thompson. An unimaginable nightmare for poor Hector to deal with.
