Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio have highly -anticipated match that millions of boxing fans are itching to watch. However boxing is such bloody sports that may bring healthy risks for any ring fighters. Braydon Smith is the latest boxer who died after his bout with John Vincent Moralde in Toowomba, Queensland.
The undefeated 23-year-old Australian boxer tasted his first loss on Saturday after Moralde proved the power of his fist in their 10-round featherweight bout. Judges favored the 20-year-old Filipino fighter who took WBC Asian Boxing Council continental title with unanimous decision of 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93. According to a source of Boxing Scene, Smith was talkative before he passed out and brought to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.
ESPN shared that the law student-boxer even commended Moralde before collapsing in his dressing room, around 90 minutes after his boxing match. He was in induced-coma since then but on Monday his life support was turned off as he failed to recover his consciousness.
"We believe that a so-called sport where two people knock each other in the head as often as you possibly can to win a bout seems rather barbaric," Australian Medical Association Queensland president Shaun Rudd said in his interview with ABC. "You're not allowed to hit the organs beneath the belt, whereas you're allowed to hit the organ above your shoulder, which is the most important organ in the body."
John Hogg, the Australian National Boxing Federation's Queensland medical registrar, told The Courier Mail that what happened to Braydon was a mystery. He added that Smith's father-trainer Brendon Smith was present at that time and would be the first one to notice his son's condition. Apart from this, there were two doctors there to examine the fighters every now and then.
"The doctor obviously had no cause for concern so it's a mystery as to what's happened,'' Hogg shared. "He hasn't taken a lot of punishment in his career so I'm completely baffled as to what could have brought this on.''
"Any sport where people are punching each other in the head, there is the possibility of injury. But the last death in Queensland was more than 20 years ago.''
In defense of the sport that made Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson household name, Boxing Queensland president Ann Tindall shared that what happened to Smith was like any 'tragic accident.'
"It's a tragic accident, a tragic accident as you can have in a car or any other sport, there are many sports that have deaths in them," Tindall pointed out to ABC. "We don't believe we're immune, but at the same time we don't believe it's the boxing that's going to actually harm any of our youngsters."
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