Maxim Dadashev’s tragic death rocked the boxing world on Tuesday, but one man who can’t take any blame is trainer Buddy McGirt.
Dadashev was struggling heavily in what ultimately turned into a loss to Subriel Matias on Friday. After 11 rounds, McGirt intervened and stopped the fight against Dadashev’s wishes. Later that night, Dadashev was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma. Emergency surgery and a medically-induced coma were not enough to save his life.
The reality of what happened makes the video of McGirt urging Dadashev to let him stop the fight all the more difficult to watch.
This video of Buddy McGirt urging Maxim Dadashev to stop fighting was hard to watch Friday, it’s even harder now. Heart-breaking. pic.twitter.com/BNjsdpJfle
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 23, 2019
After the fight ended, McGirt defended his decision, stating that he was willing to take the risk of his fighter being mad at him for a day or two instead of putting him at further risk physically.
"God forbid… one punch as you know can change a whole guy's life and I wasn't going to let that happen– so, I'd rather have them be mad at me for a day or two then to be mad at me for the rest of their life."
-Buddy McGirt on stopping the fight for Maxim Dadashev. pic.twitter.com/RINM4D83ZZ— Jorge Hernández (@JorgeDeBurque) July 20, 2019
In this case, there were no obvious signs of traumatic injury, and McGirt made the right calls when he needed to make them. Tragically, it still wasn’t enough to save Dadashev’s life.
