Post by jimsteel on Jul 23, 2019 12:17:50 GMT -5
Boxer Dadashev dies from Friday fight injuries
unior welterweight Maxim Dadashev died on Tuesday morning as a result of brain injuries suffered during an 11th-round knockout loss to Subriel Matias on Friday night at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Dadashev was 28.
Donatas Janusevicius -- Dadashev's strength and conditioning coach -- and trainer Buddy McGirt confirmed Dadashev's death. Janusevicius had been with Dadashev at UM Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly, Maryland, since he was taken there after the fight.
"It just makes you realize what type of sport we're in, man," McGirt told ESPN. "He did everything right in training, no problems, no nothing. My mind is like really running crazy right now. Like, what could I have done differently? But at the end of the day, everything was fine [in training].
"He seemed OK, he was ready, but it's the sport that we're in. It just takes one punch, man."
Dadashev faced Matias in a 140-pound world title elimination fight for the right to become the mandatory challenger for the belt held by Josh Taylor.
McGirt lauded Dadashev's dedication to the sport.
"Great, great guy. He was a trainer's dream," McGirt said. "If I had two more guys like him, I wouldn't need anybody else because he was truly dedicated to the sport."
The fight was grueling and Matias dominated. He landed numerous powerful blows to the head and body. Matias was ahead 109-100, 108-101 and 107-102 on the scorecards following the 11th round when McGirt stopped the fight, with Dadashev on the stool in a dramatic scene.
After the round, McGirt loudly told Dadashev, "I'm going to stop it, Max. Max, you're getting hit too much."
Dadashev shook his head to indicate he did not want the fight stopped, but McGirt kept at it: "Please, Max, please. Let me do this. OK? OK? Look at me. Please."
Dadashev shook his head again and McGirt said, "If I don't, the referee's gonna do it. C'mon, Max. Please."
McGirt didn't wait for another signal from Dadashev.
"That's it, Doc," he told the ringside physician. Then he turned to referee Kenny Chevalier: "That's it."
McGirt said he first thought about throwing in the towel in the ninth round, but he knew he had to stop it after the 11th.
"I saw him fading and when he came back to the corner [after the 11th round], my mind was already made up," McGirt said. "I was just asking him out of respect, but my mind was made up. I wasn't going to let him go out there."
Dadashev needed help leaving the ring. He collapsed before making it to the dressing room and began vomiting. He was taken from the arena on a stretcher and then was transported by ambulance to the hospital, where he underwent emergency brain surgery for two hours for a subdural hematoma -- bleeding on the brain. Doctors hoped to relieve pressure on the right side of his brain, where most of the damage was, with the surgery and placed him in a medically induced coma, to allow time for brain swelling to subside.
Dadashev (13-1, 11 KOs), the married father of a son, was from Saint Petersburg, Russia, and based in Oxnard, California. His wife was on her way from Russia to the hospital in the Washington suburbs and had been due to arrive on Monday night.
Dadashev, who began boxing at age 10, was a promising prospect. He was ranked No. 10 on the ESPN top prospect list at the end of 2017 following a standout amateur career in which he went 281-20 and was a silver medalist at the 2008 World Junior Championships. He claimed a silver medal at the 2013 Russian amateur championships and bronze medals at the same tournament in 2010 and 2012.
