Los Angeles (AFP)
The American boxer Patrick Day, hospitalized after a violent knockout, was Sunday night in a state "extremely critical", said the organizer of fights Lou DiBella.
Day, 27, was evacuated unconscious from the ring after the KO suffered Saturday night in Chicago and transported to the hospital where he underwent an emergency operation of brain surgery.
"Patrick is in a coma caused by the injury he has suffered in the ring and he is in an extremely critical state," said Lou DiBella. "We are touched by the influx of supports, prayers and offers of assistance from the entire boxing community," he said.
Patrick Day is in the intensive care unit at Chicago's Norhtwestern Memorial Hospital in the northeastern United States. The organizer did not provide any data on the precise nature of the injury he suffered.
Day was knocked out by compatriot Charles Conwell in a super welterweight bout at the Chicago Winstrust Arena.
Conwell Sunday asked those who follow him on social media to pray for Patrick Day's recovery. "Keep it in your prayers! #Prayforpatrickday," he wrote on his Twitter account.
"Sometimes life seems unfair," tweeted Lou DiBella. "Please, keep Pat in your prayers, in your thoughts and in your hearts".
Day collapsed in the tenth round of the fight, his head hitting the carpet heavily on a terrible Conwell left hook. He had already wobbled just before on his opponent's right.
Patrick Day was unconscious Saturday night when he was evacuated from the ring on a stretcher. He had convulsions in the ambulance that was transporting him to the hospital and had to be intubated.
This fight was the return of Day in the ring after a defeat in June in New York against Carlos Adames. He has a record of 17 wins, four losses and a draw in his professional career that began in 2013.
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