Maxim Dadashev in critical condition after Friday night fight

Russian Junior welterweight contender Maxim Dadashev is clinging to life Saturday morning after a brutal 11th round TKO loss to Puerto Rico’s Subriel Matias. on Friday night in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The previously-unbeaten Dadashev (13-1) was fighting fellow unbeaten Matias (now, 14-0) in a scheduled 12-round eliminator fight on ESPN+ for the IBF number one contender status in the 140 lbs. division.

Matias was winning the fight decisively, and Dadashev continued to absorb punishment in the late rounds. That’s when, longtime trainer, and former fighter, Buddy McGirt finally stopped it after the 11th round.

Here was McGirt talking to ESPN immediately after the fight about his decision to step in and halt the battle:

?️"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

ESPN cameras showed Dadashev clearly in distress in his corner after the stoppage, and there was some delay in getting him out of the ring and significant medical treatment. Media and observers at ringside saw him leave the ring with the help of his team, but, Dadashev was unable to make it back to the locker room before collapsing.

Paramedics and a stretcher were summoned, and he was immediately taken by ambulance to Prince George’s Hospital in nearby Cheverly, Maryland.

ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna reported on the broadcast after the main event won by Teofimo Lopez, that Dadashev was “concussed, suffering from dehydration,”  and “had lost consciousness in the ambulance”

Steve Kim of ESPN.com reported overnight that Dadashev had brain surgery to relieve swelling and further reported,

At 2:25 a.m., neurosurgeon Mary IH Cobb told Dadashev’s manager Egis Klimas and trainer Donatas Janusevicius that the boxer had suffered a brain bleed on his right side, that his head was shaved and his scalp opened up, and that he was showing signs of severe brain damage. He had been given medication to decrease swelling.

“He will swell over the next few days,” Cobb said. “I don’t know how much brain damage he has.”

Cobb added that some who sustain subdural hematomas can make a relatively strong recovery.

“I wouldn’t give up on him,” she said.

Dadashev’s wife was contacted late Friday night in Russia and his on her way to the United States Saturday.

Matias won nearly every round on the three judges cards out landing Dadashev 3 to 1 in punches over the 11 rounds, and was obviously concerned post-fight, as he told Osuna on ESPN, while in the ring,

“I showed that I am not just a power puncher. I also can box. I was dominating the fight. I focused my offense on going to the body, and that’s how I stopped him from running.”