British fighter Sherif Lawal died on Sunday night after collapsing during his professional debut match in the United Kingdom.
Lawal was fighting his first major bout at the Harrow Leisure Centre in a suburb northwest of London when the incident occurred, according to match promoter Warren Boxing Management. The company extended its condolences to Lawal’s friends and family in a statement posted to social media.
“Unfortunately during Sherif’s fight, he collapsed and despite the best efforts of the paramedics, he was later pronounced dead,” the statement said.
The British Boxing Board of Control also confirmed Lawal’s death in a statement on Monday.
“The thoughts of all those involved in Boxing in Great Britain are with them at this difficult time,” the board said.
Lawal was 29 years old, according to the BBC.
Additional details on Lawal’s death were not provided.
Deaths in the ring are not an uncommon aspect in boxing, a full-contact combat sport. American boxer Patrick Day died after sustaining injuries during a 2019 match in Chicago.
The New York native was knocked unconscious during the fight’s tenth round and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Day slipped into a coma following brain surgery and never regained consciousness.
His opponent, Olympic boxer Charles Conwell, expressed remorse in an open letter to Day while he was comatose.
“I can’t stop thinking about it myself I prayed for you so many times and shedded so many tears because I couldn’t even imagine how my family and friends would feel,” Conwell wrote.
Earlier that year, the Russian Boxing Federation announced the death of Maxim Dadashev after he sustained injuries in a match in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Trainer Buddy McGirt had the referee end the fight after the fighter sustained repeated blows.
Dadashev was hospitalized at UM Prince George’s Hospital Center with brain swelling shortly after the fight, according to The Associated Press.
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