This past Friday Night, I attended my first boxing match ever at the MGM Grand in Washington DC (National Harbor). Wasn’t really sure what to expect; I’m not an avid boxing fan, I watch it on TV if I don’t have other sports to watch. I’ll order the big name fights on PPV, but I don’t follow the sport like I do Football, Basketball or Hockey. I won’t write about the entire experience but a specific one that is rather sad and completely devastating. 28 year old boxer Maxim Dadashev passed away from injuries in the fight Friday night. To be honest it was a total surprise.
Not one moment during the 11 rounds did I think Dadashev was in this bad of condition. It was a fairly even fight most of the time, I think the other guy would’ve won in a decision because he started to pull away in the 8th or 9th round. This wasn’t a situation where Dadashev was being pummeled in the ring, never got knocked down, wasn’t getting smashed with haymakers, both fighters were trading punches. Dadashev took a couple hard shots at the end of round 11, one of them right as the bell rang, and he got his bell rung. He kinda stumbled back to his corner, looking like he had 1 too many drinks at the bar. Nothing unusual, we’ve seen fighters like this all the time in UFC and Boxing. I think my thoughts at the time, along with everyone else was, "idk if he can make it another round, he might lose" not that his life was in danger but that he could get knocked out. But when he took that punch as the bell sounded in the 11th...that's when it seemed like it was over for him.
He sat in his corner for a while looking dazed, I watched him up on the jumbotron and even made a comment to my dad that he doesn’t look too good. Then right before the 12th round bell rang to start, Dadashev’s trainer called the fight.
Good/smart decision on his part and I totally understood. He wasn’t going to win the fight at this point, especially in the current condition he was in, so why have him take more punches then he needs. Little did we know he already did take too many punches.
They asked his trainer why he called the fight and he said, "...We all know what 1 more punch can do to somebody...I'd rather him be mad at me for a couple days than be mad at me his entire life."
Everyone in the arena clapped. My dad even said, man that guy is lucky he has an experienced trainer who knows when to call the fight.
But then Dadashev couldn’t stand up, I’m thinking to myself, “man he must be hurting pretty bad” Then they had to carry him out. - shit he's really hurting, I hope he is going to be ok.
Then they brought out a gurney - mind racing all over the place. Taken aback a little, didn’t expect all of this...but he’ll be ok.
After getting some good food at Bob and Edith’s Diner in Crystal City, I turn on ESPN in the hotel that night at 2am.
Up next is a report on the fighter Maxim Dadashev. I sat there watching the footage and listening to the reports of him throwing up before making it into the locker room, being rushed to the hospital and lost consciousness in the ambulance. Having to turn around to take him to a trauma care center.
It's crazy, totally insane, how this whole thing occurred. It wasn't some huge haymaker that knocked him out cold. He wasn't getting pummeled in the ring. At no point in the 11 rounds did it look like he needed to be taken out. It never felt dangerous for him. And then all of a sudden his life just fell apart.
Yes, I understand some of you will say “what do you mean it never felt ‘dangerous’ it’s boxing.” I understand that; boxing in itself is a dangerous sport, I mean you are taking punches to the head for crying out loud. UFC and Football are dangerous. But when we see fighters and athletes step onto the gridiron, the octagon, the ring...we don’t expect “this” to happen. So when I say, the fight never seemed dangerous for Dadashev, I say that in the sense of he never showed any signs of brain trauma or symptoms of a concussion, or stumbled, or wobbly knees at any moment of a fight.
It’s truly mind blowing how this happened and I can’t really wrap my head around it as someone who watched the fight. Sure he got punched a lot but so did the other guy. It’s very sad.
It’s eerie to listen to his trainer talk about stopping the fight early but little did we know that “1 punch” already happened, and probably happened rounds and rounds ago.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and trainers.
I guess the message I want to send writing this is: you just never know. Cherish those around you because you never know when they’ll be gone. Sometimes we take simple life events for granted, mundane routines we do all the time. I’m guilty of it. So everyday when you wake up and every night you go to bed just make sure you take the time to reflect and appreciate everything and everyone around you.
Thank you for reading fore those who did. Sorry to make my first blog post such a depressing topic. I’ve been meaning to start a blog for a while, about sports and about travel; my first post was actually going to be about my recent backpacking trip in California/Oregon. The purpose for me personally was to have another creative avenue and hopefully help my creativity for short films when it came to writing stories. This was just an experience I wanted to share, because I thought it was a unique one, when you hear about these tragedies, you assume the boxer was knocked out or just got the snot beat out of him for 10 rounds. But this wasn’t the case.
Not sure how often I’ll write, I mean, I did take this Backpacking trip over a month ago and as you see I still haven’t even shared 1 photo haha. I promise they’re coming.