South African boxer Simiso Buthelezi, who made headlines a couple of days ago for losing control during a match against Siphesihle Mntungwa, was revealed to have sustained cerebral hemorrhage during the fight and has succumbed to the injuries in the hospital.
Simiso Buthelezi collapsed soon after the fight, before passing away at the hospital
Buthelezi had faced Mntungwa in a lightweight bout at the at the Greyville Convention Centre in Durban last Sunday night for the World Boxing Federation of Africa (WBF) lightweight championship.
During the final round of the 10-round fight, Buthelezi had lost his consciousness in the ring and started approaching the referee, before he moved to one corner and started throwing punches in a similar fashion to shadow boxing. The referee stopped the fight and Matunga was declared victorious.
Moments after the fight, Buthelezi had collapsed and was rushed to the hospital and was placed in an induced coma after the medical officials diagnosed that the pugilist has sustained bleeding in the brain.
Unfortunately, Buthelezi had succumbed to the hemorrhaging, as revealed by Boxing South Africa (BSA) on Tuesday via a joint statement issued along with the boxer’s family.
“It is with great sadness for Boxing South Africa and the Buthelezi family to announce the passing away of Mr Simiso Buthelezi, who passed away last night on 7 June in hospital in Durban,” the joint statement from the BSA read.
“Towards the end of his bout, Mr Buthelezi collapsed and was taken to hospital and it was discovered that he suffered a brain injury which resulted in internal bleeding. At the hospital, Mr Buthelezi was given the best care possible but he succumbed to the injury. Boxing South Africa will conduct an independent medical review of the injury and will then make public the results of that medical review. The Buthelezi family and BSA acknowledges warm words of condolences of the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture,” the statement added. [H/T Marca.com]
Buthelezi’s coach Bheki Mngomezulu, however, revealed that the boxer was in perfect physical condition during the buildup to the fight. “There wasn’t anything untoward in the fight and in training. He was leading the fight on points before the unfortunate incident occurred,” said Mngomezulu. [H/T Marca.com]
