STRICTER LICENSING,

Edmonton fighter, teacher died following one-sided loss to ex-Eskimo Braidwood

As an Edmonton elementary school mourned the loss of a beloved teacher on Monday, Tim Hague’s death from injuries suffered during a boxing match sparked calls for stricter licensing requirements and better protection for fighters in the ring.

Hague, 34, was injured in a second-round technical knockout loss to Adam Braidwood in a heavyweight bout on Friday night.

He was taken to hospital after the one-sided loss. His friends reported on social media that he underwent surgery to relieve bleeding on the brain. His death was announced Sunday by his sister Jackie Neil.

Hague, a former kindergarten teacher whose nickname was The Thrashing Machine, taught Grade 4 English at Ecole Bellevue School.

“It is with deep sorrow that we must inform our Black Gold family that Mr. Tim Hague, a beloved teacher and staff member at Ecole Bellevue School, has passed away,” the school said in a statement. “This is a tragedy for everyone — his family, his friends and the school community that he was such an important part of.

“Supports have been put in place to help the school family during this difficult time. We encourage everyone to remember the wonderful qualities Tim possessed and to respect the family and school’s need for privacy during this time.”

Hague’s death came less than a month after boxer David Whittom went into a coma with bleeding on the brain after a knockout loss in Fredericton, N.B. The two cases have raised calls for improvements in rules to ensure the safety of fighters in boxing and mixed martial arts.

Hague (1-3 as a boxer, 21-13 in MMA), a heavy underdog who accepted the fight on only two weeks notice, was knocked down three times, while another trip to the canvas was ruled a slip, in the first round against Braidwood, a former CFL player with an 8-1 record. Referee Len Koivisto stopped the bout after two more knock-downs in the second round.

The Edmonton Combative Sports Commission, which regulates professional combative sports events in the city, issued a statement that it and the City of Edmonton are “conducting a comprehensive review of the incident.”

“There are many people and organizations involved in putting on these complex events including promoters, referees, ringside judges, physicians, chief inspector, paymaster and the presiding inspectors assigned to the fight. We have mobilized quickly and are working together to review the circumstances surrounding this incident and will determine the next steps following the evaluation of the information.”

The city said such a review is standard.

“We do our internal reviews after every fight,” Rob Smyth, deputy city manager for citizen services, told a news conference Monday. “There’s sometimes lessons learned there in terms of how that particular fight evolved and changed, and we’ll fine-tune our practices.”

But in this case, Smyth said the city wants to take it a step further and get a third party to conduct an independent, separate review.

“Our thinking ... is that the review will have to get input information from all of the different individuals who were part of organizing the event.”

He said the details — including who would conduct it, and when it would be done — haven’t been decided yet.