Boxing is a dangerous trade. One in 5,000 professional boxing bouts end in death via brain trauma. This month the sport suffered another one.
Heavyweight Ardi Ndembo died after suffering a knockout loss in a bout on April 5, 2024 in Miami. He was unconscious for several minutes following his loss and placed in an induced coma. He remained in a coma until he passed away.
The bout was promoted by “Team Combat League“. A relatively new venture where boxers compete in teams. The teams face each other with boxers fighting in one round bouts. Some athletes are scheduled to have more than one such bout in a single day.
It was reported on Jeremiah Milton’s Instagram account that Ndembo suffered a knockout in sparring “one week before” his fatal Team Combat League bout and “twice in a month“.
Milton’s post also alleges that various individuals involved with the Team Combat promotion were in the room. If this is true there are serious questions that need answers.
While boxing is dangerous there are checks and balances in place to prevent fighters from competing shortly after being knocked out. Finding out if, where and how these measures failed is an important exercise.
The Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (“ABC”) have the position that no fighter should box for a minimum of 60 days following a knockout loss. There are well understood medical dangers when concussed athletes return to impactful competition before their concussions have time to properly heal.
While this technically applies to a KO during a bout, not practice, the difference is academic. Brain injury does not discriminate between practice and competition. Trauma is trauma. And sensible recovery time is needed in either case.
Florida, the jurisdiction where this bout occurred, has a similar policy with the Florida Athletic Commission requiring as follows:
Since gym knockouts are not recorded in any database like BoxRec regulators need to rely on the self reporting of the men and women they give licences to.
Florida requires all boxers to fill out a “pre-licensure physical sheet”. This questionnaire specifically asks participants to report if and when they were ever knocked unconscious. I do not know how Ndembo filled out this form.
Florida goes beyond requiring a fighter to self disclose a prior knockout. The Commission also imposes a statutory duty on all licensee’s to disclose information they know about “physical disability” or “incapacity” about a participant in a match.
The key questions worth asking are which other licensees knew about the apparent gym KO in the weeks preceding the bout. And what, if anything, they told the Florida Athletic Commission.
I have reached out to the Florida Athletic Commission for comment. I have also reached out to Team Combat League for comment. I will update this article if/when either of them reply.
Ndembo was 27. He had two children.
A GoFundMe has been launched to help his family in their time of need.
Combat Sports Law 