PROMISING MEXICAN FEATHERWEIGHT OSCAR GONZALEZ DIES AFTER KO LOSS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 04 Feb 2014
Promising Mexican featherweight Oscar Gonzalez has died following head injuries suffered in a 10th round knockout loss to Jesus Galicia in Mexico City last Saturday.
Gonzalez who had scored three impressive victories prior to the fateful fight was described by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman as ?a brilliant prospect.?
He had impressive wins over former super bantamweight champion Rico Ramos last April 12, 2013, undefeated Adrian Young on July 13 last year and Hector Velazquez who once faced ?Fighter of the Decade? Manny Pacquiao for the WBC International super featherweight title and lost by a 6th round TKO on September 10, 2005.
At the time of his death, Gonzalez had a record of 23-3 with 14 knockouts while Galicia entered the ring with a record of 13-7 with 8 knockouts.
What concerned Sulaiman is the fact that it wasn?t a brutal fight although Gonzalez reportedly fainted during the 10th round and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit of the Espanol Hospital in Mexico City.
Sulaiman said ?we need to continue looking for prevention. This is just an unfortunate accident that reinforces the need to look for proper safety methods for the boxers in order to make boxing safer."
Gonzalez death comes not long after a 21 year old Japanese boxer, Tesshin Okada has died 17 days after he suffered a fourth round knockout in his professional debut on December 20, 2013.
Okada reportedly lost consciousness after the fourth and final round of a super-flyweight bout against Masafumi Kamiyama another fighter who was also making his pro debut.
The JBC said Okada was rushed to hospital by ambulance and underwent a craniotomy after being diagnosed with an acute subdural haematoma.
Okada was the 38th boxer to die from injuries in bouts in Japan since the JBC was founded in 1952.
His death comes less than a month since a 16-year-old schoolboy Jonas Garcia died after an amateur fight in a regional schools meet in the Philippines.
Garcia suffered internal bleeding and was in a coma for a week after the bout. His death triggered calls for the sport to be banned in schools in the Philippines.
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