Comments Thread For: Magomed Abdusalamov and The Dark Side of Boxing

[MDPopescu]

Great piece of investigative journalism by Thomas Hauser.
This writer did a good job for the sport...

[MDPopescu]

i understand the need to "hold somebody responsible" when something like this happens. that's one of the ways you make sure it doesn't happen again.

HBO isn't guilty of not getting adequate insurance for a world class boxing match. they aren't in charge of stopping fights that should probably be stopped in the corner. they don't assign doctors in the commission to check fighters out. they're completely separated from all of that.

they're just a TV network. they buy the right to broadcast fights. it's a big company, and people assume that magomed's medical bills are of no significance to an entitity like HBO, and that they should intuitively pay for them. HBO should make a donation, and use their airwaves to broadcast plugs for the trust set up in magomed's name.

caring for magomed abdusalamov isn't the responsibility of HBO. that's what insurance is for. i know people don't want to hear that, as it's an emotional subject, but that's the truth. it's not their fault k2 didn't buy an adequate amount of insurance, or that the NY commission doctors didn't send magomed to the hospital in an ambulance immediately.

... Life was always cheap in Russia... Unfortunately...

[saintpat]

Easy to say in hindsight that it should have been stopped.

I was on a very active live thread on another forum while the fight was happening. Not one person said at the time that it should be stopped.

I wonder how many people who now say this fight should have been stopped would have called him a quitter if he had gone back after the 1st round and quit. Or the 3rd or the 5th or the 7th, etc.

I wonder how many people think many of Arturo Gatti's fights should have been stopped?

[ShoulderRoll]

I watched the fight and at no point did I think Mago was unable to defend himself. I always thought he had the chance to potentially score a KO. It was a competitive fight through out the whole 10 rounds.

I felt the same way. At no point did I think that he was out of the fight or that he was getting blown out or that he had no chance to win. He was landing very damaging punches of his own right up till the end.

The ringside doctor should have had an unobstructed view of him from the front at all times in the corner. If anyone could have possibly spotted early signs of brain trauma it would have been him, it is unacceptable that they let the translator get in the way.

[Weebler I]

Easy to say in hindsight that it should have been stopped.

I was on a very active live thread on another forum while the fight was happening. Not one person said at the time that it should be stopped.

There was a live thread on this site too:

They need to stop the fight in Mango's corner.

Stop the fight??

Abdusalamov's corner is just in disarray it seems.

and quite a few other posts of people commenting on the condition of Mago's face and potential broken jaw.

I'm not saying it was unanimous the fight should have been stopped, it wasn't, but I think there comes a point where if your fighter is damaged, he's losing round after round and doesn't look capable of turning it round that you take a sensible decision.

[Mark_ehy]

I've seen fights stopped for much less than what Abdusalamov took then again people will complain fight stopped too early it's a thin line between right and wrong hindsight is always 20/20 but yea obviously Mago's corner was relying on pure luck after a few rounds because he was getting beat up just so he could maybe land a strong punch here and there for every 1 strong punch mago landed it seemed like perez landed 10 it was just an uphill battle. This wasn't the first fight Mago was getting beat up in either, he would get beat up take punches in a lot of his previous fights as well just so he could brawl with the other guy and overwhelm him in the end. This fight was probably just the final straw that broke the camel's back, im sure all the punches he took from previous fights were cumulatively accountable for this situation as well.

The main issue here is that there were no precautions before during or after the fight, it seems like he got the short end of the stick when it came to medical services

[jas]

nysac should be ashamed of themselves

[jas]

There was a live thread on this site too:







and quite a few other posts of people commenting on the condition of Mago's face and potential broken jaw.

I'm not saying it was unanimous the fight should have been stopped, it wasn't, but I think there comes a point where if your fighter is damaged, he's losing round after round and doesn't look capable of turning it round that you take a sensible decision.

good post.

the standard that officials uphold today in boxing in below what it should be. we are seeing bad judging decisions, bad referees and bad doctors and the thing is, they do not lose their job.

[soul_survivor]

I felt the same way. At no point did I think that he was out of the fight or that he was getting blown out or that he had no chance to win. He was landing very damaging punches of his own right up till the end.

The ringside doctor should have had an unobstructed view of him from the front at all times in the corner. If anyone could have possibly spotted early signs of brain trauma it would have been him, it is unacceptable that they let the translator get in the way.

Watching the fight as it happened, on TV, is no substitute to actually being there, being in Mago's corner, being the doctor, the trainer and the referee. Hauser, as always has given very detailed accounts of what happened, from the horse's mouth as you'd say.

Something I did notice was that Mago wasn't sitting in between rounds and it happened on more than one occasion, why was that? And it wasn't the macho showboating Ali or Foreman used to do, it was the fact that he looked confused, on multiple occasions, it's something I noticed while watching it on TV, surely the trainer, the doctor and the referee must have been close enough to see his eyes and his mannerisms in person?

I know, I know, Mago was fighting back and in all honesty, watching the fight I never once expected it to be stopped but the more I read about the situation, about what the corner was going through, about Mago's body language, about the ineptitude of the ringside doctors and what happened behind the scenes, not just from Hauser but a couple other articles have mentioned the same situation...it makes me sick to my stomach. Seriously?? They didn't have ambulances on standby? The doctor's didn't even seem to push Mago to go to a hospital.

This is one big mistake followed by another. And it's not the first time. Without any bias, I seriously believe that more boxing associations need to take a leaf out of the BBBOC, they have created one of, if not THE safest working environment's within the sport and learnt from the harsh lessons of the 90s. There are always ambulances on standby, in fact, I've been to some small hall shows at York Hall and there are always ambulances around.

What's stopping it from happening across the pond?

[torosboxing75]

This is all very ****ed up.