A 23-year-old boxer who was knocked out in his debut has died

Nicaraguan boxer Keyving Magdiel Hernandez GonzalezThe 23-year-old died Thursday in a hospital in Matagalpa, northern Nicaragua, after being knocked out in his professional debut more than three months ago, his relatives and fight organizers said.

The boxer died a week after being discharged from the Antonio Lenín Fonseca National Reference Hospital in Managua, where he had been in a coma, according to his relatives.

Hernández González lost on the fast track, in the second round, to young promise Bryan Mercado, also making his career debut, on March 25th. After the fight, the now deceased boxer returned to his hometown, La Dalia, department of Matagalpa (North).

His family told the local sports press that Hernández González returned home full of grief and with a headache that would not stop. The headache became more intensefor which he was admitted to a health center in his community, 24 days after he was knocked out, and was later transferred to a hospital in Managua, where he fell into a coma.

At Antonio Lenín Fonseca, he remained in intensive care and after 22 days he opened his eyes again, although already he lost many of his abilitiesaccording to his relatives, who by then had started SOS to cover the costs of the operation.

“After the operation, his brain swelled a little, parts of his body stopped working so he could breathe, they did a tracheotomy in an attempt to always save his life“, he explained for the newspaper the newspaper former world boxing champion from Nicaragua, Félix Alvarado, who organized the boxing night.

“He managed to get out of the hospital (in Managua) and later, at home, he had breathing problems,” he added. Family members reported that the boxer had symptoms of pneumonia that made him unable to breathe. “The family took him back to his local hospital where he was re-admitted and they discovered pneumonia which was preventing him from breathing. This meant that he did not get enough oxygen and he, with a tracheotomy, could not survive and died in the early hours of the morning today due to respiratory arrest,” said former world champion Alvarado.

Hernández González is the second Nicaraguan professional boxer to die after a fight in the last 8 years.

The first was David the Terry Acevedo, also 23, who died in hospital on November 21, 2015, eight days after being knocked out by Nelson Altamirano in the last minute of the eighth round of a fight organized by the promoter of the former two-time world boxing champion, Nicaragua’s Rosendo Alvarez.