Borg’s infant son has had five surgeries, may need another
Anthony Borg, the son of Albuquerque MMA fighter Ray Borg, won’t turn eight months old until Nov. 27. Yet, he already has undergone five surgeries.
Anthony suffers from hydrocephalus, an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Surgery No. 5, performed on Wednesday, became necessary when a shunt — essentially a valve that removes excess fluid — caused an infection.
On Twitter, Ray Borg explained that the shunt was removed and a temporary drainage system put in place. Later, it will be decided whether to install another shunt or if Anthony might be a candidate for a surgery that would make a shunt unnecessary.
Borg, meanwhile, has not fought in more than a year.
After his loss to Demetrious Johnson in a UFC flyweight title fight on Oct. 7, 2017, Borg (113) was scheduled to face Brandon Moreno on April 7. But the Albuquerquean took glass fragments to his left eye when UFC star Conor McGregor shoved a dolly through a shuttle-bus window in an effort to get at prospective opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The Moreno fight was rescheduled for May 19, but Anthony’s medical condition forced his father to withdraw.
Borg then was scheduled to face fellow New Mexican Joseph Benavidez on last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Denver, but was withdrawn from the card because of his own, as yet undisclosed medical issue.
An active GoFundMe page, established to help defray Borg and his wife Amanda’s medical expenses, has raised almost $37,000 as of Monday.
For the same purpose, Borg is marketing “Borg Strong” T-shirts. A link is available on Borg’s Twitter profile (@ tazmexufc).
PARKER TKO’d: In Costa Mesa, Calif., Albuquerque-based MMA middleweight Sidiah Parker fell victim to a devastating Moses Murrietta right hand Friday night in the co-main event of a Legacy Fighting Alliance card.
After the loss by second-round TKO, Parker is 19-8. Murrietta, of Fontana, Calif., is 8-1.
Parker, a Utah native who trains in Albuquerque at FITNHB, appeared to win the first round and was the more active fighter through the first seven minutes of the fight. But a Murrietta right hand some two minutes into the second round appeared to change the dynamic.
Then, with some 30 seconds remaining in the round, Parker, looking to counter a Murrietta left jab, instead walked into a pictureperfect right hand. The referee quickly stepped in to halt the fight as Parker collapsed to the ground.
TO THE BONE: Clovis MMA lightweight Harvey Park, the fighting Curry County Sheriff’s deputy, improved his record to 10-2 with a victory by unanimous decision over Le’ville Simpson (8-4) on a Nov. 9 LFA card in Phoenix.
Late in the first round, Park broke a bone in the ring finger on his right hand. With the bone protruding through the skin, he nonetheless continued to throw punches with the damaged hand throughout the fight and won going away.
It was Park’s first victory on the LFA circuit, bouncing back from a loss by unanimous decision in May to Antoine Hubbard (9-2) in Vail, Colo.