Former WBA heavyweight champ Greg Page, who suffered a severe brain injury in a 2001 fight, has died at his Louisville home at the age of 50. According to Page's wife, the ex-champ died from complications due to boxing injuries and paralysis.
Following a successful amateur career, Page went 58-17-1 during a professional career that began in 1979 and included wins over Jimmy Young, James Tillis, Renaldo Snipes, Gerrie Coetzee (for the WBA title), James 'Bonecrusher' Smith and Tim Witherspoon. Page's losses read like a who's who of heavyweights of the 1980s: Trevor Berbick, Witherspoon, Tony Tubbs, Buster Douglas, Joe Bugner, Orlin Norris, Donovan 'Razor' Ruddock, Bruce Seldon, Monte Barrett and Jorge Luis Gonzalez.
Page lost the title to Tony Tubbs in his first defence just four months later and saw his career decline inexorably with subsequent losses to fringe contenders such as Orlin Norris, Donovan Ruddock, Joe Bugner and Mark Wills (twice).
After a three year sabbatical - and at the age of 36 - Page made a comeback that never got off the ground, two years later losing to a young and unbeaten Monte Barrett, who was recently stopped by British heavyweight David Haye.
But on his last fight in 2001, Page suffered a 10th round knockout loss to Dale Crowe from which he would never fully recover.
He fell into a coma for a week and during post-fight surgery suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side and wheelchair-bound.
In 2007, Page won a $1.2 million settlement from the state of Kentucky over the lack of medical personnel at the fight. At least some good came out of Page's tragedy as it highlighted how backwards Kentucky was in terms of boxing safety and oversight. The state was forced to revamp its essentially non-existent boxing regulations and make them more consistent with federal standards. Under terms of Page's settlement, Kentucky also agreed to designate the new regulations as the "Greg Page Boxing and Safety Initiative."
More Hot Stories:
who is trevor ariza girlfriend?
kim kardashian blonde hair
0 comments:
Post a Comment