Boxer Patrick Day died after slipping into a coma following a knockout by Charles Conwell. The usual sorts are calling for a ban on the sport.
Who is to blame for Day’s death? As far as I can tell, no one. Or no one other than Day deciding to become a boxer.
Video of the last bit of the fight here:
About 10 seconds in, you see Day go down thanks to a right from Conwell that slips between his gloves in the ninth. Day takes a standing eight count, but looks entirely lucid.
In the tenth, about 1:20 into the video, the two boxers are trading blows, when Conwell connects with a right roundhouse that sends Day reeling, then connects with a left uppercut to Day’s chin a couple of seconds later, sending Day to the canvas.
All his blows were legal, not vicious by the standards of boxing, and the ref stops right after the KO. Sometimes fighters are injured or killed because the ref didn’t stop the fight soon enough despite clear signs a fighter was out of it. That doesn’t appear to be the case here. Sometimes, bad things happen and no one is to blame.
Note: Dead video embed replaced.