Boxer Maxim Dadashev has died of injuries from a Friday night fight, his coach and trainer confirmed, He was 28.
TMZ reported that the Russian junior welterweight was fighting Subriel Matias of Puerto Rico. ESPN reported that Dadashev died of injuries suffered during an 11th-round knockout loss to Matias at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The Russian Boxing Federation also confirmed the news.
"It just makes you realize what type of sport we're in, man," Dadashev's trainer, Buddy 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."
TMZ reported Dadashev was taking a lot of hits to the head, and at one point, McGirt said he was going to stop the fight.
"I'm going to stop it, Max," McGirt told Dadashev after the 11th round, according to ESPN. "Max, you're getting hit too much."
Dadashev shook his head no. McGirt asked him to let him stop the fight again. Dadashev shook his head no again, and McGirt ultimately decided to call the fight.
"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."
It was the first loss of Dadashev's professional boxing career.
ESPN reported that Dadashev needed help leaving the ring and he collapsed before he made it to the dressing room. He began vomiting and was taken from MGM National Harbor on a stretcher and taken to the hospital by ambulance. According to Russian news agency TASS, he was diagnosed with severe brain swelling. He underwent two-hour emergency brain surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma.
"He was a very kind person who fought until the very end," Dadashev's wife, Elizaveta Apushkina, said in a statement, according to ESPN. "Our son will continue to be raised to be a great man like his father. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone that cared for Maxim during his final days."
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