What to Know
- Russia-born boxer Maxim Dadashev died Tuesday after he collapsed following a match Friday at MGM National Harbor.
- The previously undefeated fighter was 28.
- Footage from the light-welterweight fight shows Dadashev shaking his head as trainer Buddy McGirt pleads with him to stop the match.
A boxer who collapsed after a match at MGM National Harbor on Friday died Tuesday, making international news and rocking the sports world.
Maxim Dadashev, of Russia, died Tuesday morning after suffering a brain injury and being placed in a medically induced coma.
He was 28.
His trainer, former boxing champion Buddy McGirt, expressed his condolences to Dadashev's loved ones.
"My heart and soul and prayers go out to Max's family," he told News4 on Tuesday.
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McGirt stopped the fight before the 12th-round bell.
"As soon as he walked down the stairs, he needed help. And he started throwing up. And that's when they knew something was wrong," McGirt told News4 on Monday.
Footage from the light-welterweight fight shows Dadashev shaking his head as McGirt pleads with him to stop the match.
"You're getting hit too much, Max. Please, Max, please let me do this," McGirt said.
Dadashev was rushed from MGM National Harbor to Prince George's Hospital Center, where he had surgery.
Both fighters were 13-0 before the fight, which offered the winner the right to challenge International Boxing Federation title-holder Josh Taylor.
McGirt said Monday that boxers do often suffer serious injuries.
"Something like this, unfortunately, is part of the sport. No trainer, fighter, manager wants to go through this," he said.
The Russian Boxing Federation's secretary general, Umar Kremlev, said the federation would investigate whether anyone was at fault for Dadashev's death.
"We need to know the truth about what happened," Kremlev wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "I believe that some human factors intervened, that there was some kind of violation."
He added the federation would give Dadashev's family financial support.
In a statement, promoter Top Bank called Dadashev "a talented fighter inside the ring and a loving husband and father outside the ropes."
He was originally from the Russian city of St. Petersburg but had fought exclusively in the United States since turning pro in 2016.
"He was a very kind person who fought until the very end," Dadashev's wife, Elizaveta Apushkina, said in a statement issued by the hospital. "Our son will continue (to) be raised to be a great man like his father."
She declined to speak on camera on Tuesday.
The Russian embassy in the U.S. said in a statement on Facebook it is "ready to provide any necessary assistance for [Dadashev's] repatriation to Russia."
Dadashev was fighting in the U.S. to provide a better life for his family, McGirt said. The trainer said he was worried about who would take care of them now.
