First—and most important—things first.
Czar Amonsot is OK. But his days as a professional pugilist are probably over.
At the end of his truly hellacious clash with Michael Katsidis on Saturday night, the Nevada State Athletic Commission sent him to hospital for precautionary reasons—standard operating procedure after a fighter has been knocked out, knocked down often, or taken a lot of punishment over the course of a fight.
An MRI scan discovered that he had developed a subdural hematoma, bleeding on the brain, the most common cause of fatality following a fight. Even when it is not fatal, suffering a subdural leaves a person far more vulnerable to future subdurals, and so, any person who has suffered one, no matter how small, can not be licensed to box in the state of Nevada.
As a result, Amonsot’s career is almost certainly finished.
That’s a shame for the young man—it doesn’t really justify the word tragedy, given the truly tragic developments that could have occurred had the bleed not been discovered when it was—but at least, at the age of 21, he has plenty of time to discover a less dangerous way to earn a living.
It’s a shame for boxing fans, too, because Amonsot showed against Katsidis, in what was not only by far the fight of the night but surely the clubhouse leader for fight of the year, that he could handle himself extremely well between the ropes.
Katsidis, fresh off his exciting five-round defeat of Graham Earl—which was itself a fight of the year candidate—tore into Amonsot from the opening bell, flooring him with a beautiful counter right hand in the second. But that knockdown almost proved to be the undoing of Katsidis: in his determination to end the fight, he flew at Amonsot with such ferocity that the two men’s heads slammed together. Katsidis got the worst of the deal, emerging with a nasty slash over his left eye and a bruise and a cut under his right.
The injuries, and Amonsot’s resilience, seemed to derail Katsidis briefly. Over the next couple of rounds, his punches lost some of their zip, and Amonsot was able to stand his ground and fight him off with well-placed blows, an uppercut through the guard proving particularly effective.
But then Katsidis found a second wind, seizing the initiative again, attacking Amonsot with flurries, and dropping him a second time in the tenth. It looked as if the fight might be stopped in that round, but the Filipino survived, and won the final two rounds on all cards as Katsidis coasted to the finish line en route to a unanimous decision win, by scores of 114-112, 115-111 (the same as TigerBoxing) and 116-110.
Unless he tightens up his defense and sharpens his skills, Katsidis seems destined to fall just short of the very pinnacle of the sport. But he’s going to be fun to watch while he’s around—from his solo, gladiatorial entrance, to his fighting style, to his postfight quotes.
“I said I’d bring new blood to the sport,” he said afterward as his wounds bled profusely. “I guess you saw a lot of new blood tonight.”
I LOVE this kid.
***
Such was the excitement of Katsidis-Amonsot, that it took a long time for the crowd to recover its energy to focus on the next bout, the WBC interim featherweight title fight between Oscar Larios and Jorge Linares. Which is a pity, because it was a pretty decent fight, too—and, remarkably, had a very similar ending.
Young, unbeaten Linares looked, frankly sensational, picking apart the rough, tough, experienced Larios with a double-fisted assault that was both powerful and delivered with impressive economy and accuracy. After the opening couple of frames, Larios attempted to do what he does best, and gradually turn up the pressure and swarm and overwhelm his young opponent. But Linares withstood the storm, and began pounding Larios absolutely mercilessly to the body with a constant barrage of thudding blows, then returning his fire to Larios’ head. Eventually, finally, Larios succumbed, crumbling to the mat after a succession of blows in the tenth. He beat the count, but was clearly in no shape to continue.
As a victim of a stoppage loss, he, too, went to the hospital for observation. And he, too, was found to have suffered a small subdural hematoma. As with Amonsot, the bleed was small and will cause no lasting damage; but, as with Amonsot, it was almost certainly career-ending—although the Mexican had said after the fight that he would probably retire anyway.
***
The injuries to Amonsot and Larios emphasize—should emphasis be necessary—just how insanely dangerous a sport boxing can be. They also underline how remarkable it is that a man like Bernard Hopkins can continue to perform, at such a physical and mental level, at the age of 42 and after 53 bouts.
His battle with Winky Wright had been dubbed “Coming To Fight,” and while the contest was rarely pretty and infrequently exciting, both men definitely did live up to the billing. Each gave his all, and while their styles frequently led to more mauling than brawling, the bout was absorbing and interesting.
PART TWO ON TUESDAY…
