Injured boxer’s fiancée “praying for a miracle”
Adonis Stevenson has been in a coma since knockout
Dethroned WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson is still under sedation and requires respiratory assistance, according to his doctors.
The Canadian is said to have suffered severe brain trauma after being knocked out by Oleksandr Gvozdyk of Ukraine. His fiancée Simone God sent out a statement saying: “Pray for a miracle.” Stevenson, 41, originally from Port-auPrince in Haiti, had been the WBC light heavyweight champion since 2013.
He was bidding for the 10th defence when he was knocked out in the 11th round by Gvozdyk at Quebec City in Canada on December 1. Stevenson is said to be still lying in a Quebec City hospital, unconscious and under sedation.
Predictably, there have been calls to ban the sport in the wake of his injury. Just as predictably, boxing will go on.
In February 1995 it was estimated that “approximately 500 boxers have died in the ring or as a result of boxing since the Marquees of Queensberry Rules were introduced in 1884”.
The code of rules on which modern boxing is based – the Queensberry rules – were the first to mandate the use of gloves. The last boxer to die after being knocked out in the final round of his WBC Asia title fight against Don Parueang on October 26 this year is Christian Daghio. The Italian was treated by medical staff inside the ring and was taken to hospital in Bangkok where he spent two days in a coma before dying.