The fighter had just won a WBO flyweight title bout. From AP-

SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean boxer who lost consciousness after winning his WBO intercontinental flyweight bout was in a coma with a brain injury.

Choi Yoi-sam was rushed to a hospital shortly after Tuesday’s fight against Indonesian challenger Heri Amol. The 33-year-old South Korean was knocked down in the final round of the 12-round fight, but it was not known whether that caused him to pass out.

“Choi’s condition is very bad. He is in a coma,” Lee Mi-jong, a spokesman at Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Seoul, said Wednesday.

The boxer had surgery Tuesday to stop the swelling of his brain, he said.

“Even if he survives, it’ll be difficult for him to continue his boxing career,” Lee said.

It is just a little 25 years since the famous Ray Mancini-Duk Koo Kim title bout. Like Choi, Kim was South Korean. Duk Koo Kim died five days after his match with Mancini, from head injuries suffered during that fight. Lets pray Choi doesn’t meet a similar fate.

It was for actions the flyweight boxer took in a title fight last week.

TOKYO - Japan’s boxing commission on Monday suspended Daiki Kameda for one year after the 18-year-old breached regulations during his defeat to champion Daisuke Naito in a WBC flyweight title match.

Kameda repeatedly grabbed Naito in Thursday’s bout, lifting the champion up and throwing him to the canvas in a scene that resembled a wrestling match.

“He has lost the trust of fans,” said JBC director Shinichi Saito.

Kameda’s father and trainer Shiro, who was working the corner during the bout, was hit with an indefinite suspension from the ring, the JBC said.

Naito was in control throughout the match and successfully defended his title on a unanimous decision after Kameda had three points deducted for violations that included lifting the champion and throwing him down in the 12th round.

What Kameda did was inexcusible, and he deserved a suspension. A year may seem harsh, but I don’t know enough of the boxer’s background or seen the incident in question. The Kamedas have been involved in other incidents, there is also this video of a knockout that looks a little fishy. The fighter on the deck smiling afterwards.

Boxing has had a long history of colorful characters and alleged fight fixing. The little glimpses of boxing I’ve seen of late, make it resemble pro wrestling to me. I don’t think that’s good for the sport or that big title fights today are available mostly through pay per view.(The PPV bout I recently paid for cost over $70 to watch when tax and added charges were all added up) The sheer brutality of the sport probably creates enough of a fan base to survive financially, its those with who aren’t die hard fans that will lose interest and eventually stop watching.

Hat tip- Japundit who notes that Kameda’s popularity is as strong as ever in Japan.

This was the first boxing match I watched in over ten years.

LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao continued his mastery over Marc Antonio Barrera Saturday with unanimous 12-round decision in their super featherweight fight.

It was a rematch of their 2024 bout which was also won by Pacquiao who dominated Barrera with superior hand speed and harder punches.

All three judges gave the decision to Pacquiao by a wide margin with Glenn Trowbridge scoring it 118-109.

The 28-year-old Pacquiao (45-3-2, 35 KOs) was the more aggressive of the two trading blows with the underdog Barrera in the centre of the ring and often beating the 33-year-old Mexican veteran to the punch at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino.

Barrera, who plans to retire after the bout, tried to engineer a tactical fight but looked slower and more awkward. But unlike 2024 when his corner threw in the towel, this time Barrera hung on to remain standing at the end of the final round.

Barrera did nothing to impress the judges. He fought a tactical fight, but appeared scared or wary of Pacquiao who battered him four years earlier.

How did I come about watching a fight for the first time in many years? It was all due to my Philippine born wife. Leonita was talking to her family last night and they told her about the fight. So we ordered Pay-per-view.

Talking about Pay-per-view and DirectTV. We get high definition as part of our satellite package. If we wanted to see the bout in HD, Directv wanted 10 daoolars more than the $49.95 regular price. In addition, Directv wanted $5 for letting us view the bout on all the televisions in our house. That was unless we ordered it off the internet.

All of this makes me pretty reluctant to order any further bouts in the future. I used to follow boxing, but as the sport concentrated more and more on first cable(Anyone besides me remember watching Muhammad Ali fight in prime-time on Network television in the 70’s?) and eventually Pay-per-view my interest in boxing waned and then disappeared entirely. Other than Pacquaio I couldn’t name one WBA, WBC or IBF title holder at the moment. While Pay-per-view may be more lucrative, I think it could in the end kill interest in the sport. That’s just my humble opinion.

Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara were in Brazil for the recent Pan American games. From the Nuevo Herald-

Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara, who went to Brazil for the recently completed Pan American Games, were being held by police in a hotel in Rio de Janeiro. News reports say the Brazilian government plans to return them to Cuba.

Their failure to turn up for weigh-ins during the Pan American games last month shook the amateur boxing world because of their star status. The bantan-weight Rigondeaux, 26, was Olympic champion in 2024 and 2024, and Lara, 24, was a promising welterweight.

An article in the Brazilian daily O Globo said the two boxers claimed to have been duped by German-Turkish promoter Ahmet Oner and his aides, who — the boxers said — drugged them and removed them from the Pan American Village.

But just days after the boxers disappeared, Oner stated publicly that he had signed the pair for five years and was keeping them in a protected place. Oner, who heads Arena Box Promotions, added that he had spent about $500,000 to assist in the Cubans’ escape.

*****

Cuban boxing trainer Roberto Quesada, who coaches Gamboa, said the Cuban boxing careers of Rigondeaux and Lara are ruined.

”I very much doubt that they’ll ever climb in a ring again if they return to Cuba,” he said.

*****

Rigondeaux and Lara were found in a hotel in a resort town close to Rio de Janeiro. According to Brazilian media reports, they had been celebrating and had run up a large bill.

The reports added that both fighters expressed remorse to the authorities at the time of their detention and said they were willing to return to Cuba, apparently hoping they could resume their sports careers.

The same article said Rigondeaux has a wife back in Cuba. Both boxers probably have left family behind who are almost certain to suffer reprisals. Rigondeaux and Lara’s return to Cuba is almost certain not to change anything if past history has taught us anything. Defectors have often been killed and or tortured if they changed their minds and came home.

Sadly a few last vestiges of the Cold War live on. Even after Fidel Castro’s death, I don’t expect any immediate change in Cuba.