British boxer wakes from title fight coma a week later
LONDON- Nick Blackwell's promoters say the boxer has woken after a week inan induced coma since a British middleweight title fight and he is speaking to family members.
Blackwell collapsed soon after the end of the March 26 fight against Chris Eubank Jr., which was stopped in the 10th round.
Promotion company Hennessy Sports says the bleeding was "outside the brain - on the skull, in fact - and was minor enough for there to be no need to operate."
The statement adds that Blackwell woke from the coma on Saturday after sedatives were gradually reduced and by the following day he was talking to family and friends.
Hennessy Sports says "it was the outcome everyone had been hoping and praying for; Nick had won his toughest fight yet."
The stoppage in the title fight only came after a ringside doctor advised the referee that Blackwell was unable to see through his left eye.
He received medical attention in the ring before being carried out of the venue on a stretcher while being given oxygen.
Eubank Jr. told reporters afterwards: "I was hitting him with some big shots and the referee saw fit to let the fight go on. Looking back now, maybe he should have stopped it earlier."
The incident brought a heavy sense of deja vu to British boxing.
In 1991, Michael Watson suffered a near-fatal brain injury in an all-British world title fight against Chris Eubank. Watson needed six operations to remove the blood clot that had formed on his brain, leaving him partially paralyzed.
Twenty-five years later, the long-retired Eubank was a central figure in another dark night for the sport in Britain. And it might be that his memories of that fight against Watson prevented the worst of scenarios in Saturday.
Eubank was in the corner of his son, Chris Eubank Jr., who was handing Blackwell a beating in their fight for the British title at Wembley Arena.
Eubank Sr. saw the gravity of the situation and entered the ring to speak to his son before the ninth round began, telling him to stop taking head shots to Blackwell.
"If the referee doesn't stop it, then I don't know what to tell you," Eubank told his son. "But I will tell you this: If he doesn't stop it and you keep on beating him like this, one, he is getting hurt, two, if it goes to a decision, why hasn't the referee stopped the fight? I don't get why.
"So maybe you shouldn't leave it to the referee. But you are not going to take him out to the face. You are going to take him out to the body. OK?"