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Trainers defend boxing life after fighter’s death
By BRIAN DZENIS
YOUNGSTOWN
It looked so routine, but things can go downhill so fast.
Larry Filer, a 25-year trainer at the Downtown Boxing Club, watched Warren’s Anthony Taylor and Detroit’s Hamzah Ajahmi make their professional debuts on Saturday night. It was a back-and-forth bout, with Taylor winning the first round and Ajahmi taking the next two. The brain damage Ajahmi suffered wasn’t easy to spot as he stumbled in the fourth round.
“I thought the fella threw out his knee,” Filer said. “When he wasn’t getting up, I knew something was wrong.”
Paramedics rushed Ajahmi to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. After undergoing brain surgery during the weekend, he died on Tuesday.
The boxer from Dearborn, Mich., was 19.
“I’m just deeply saddened by the event Saturday evening,” boxing promoter Jack Loew said. “I’m lost for words probably for the first time in my life.”
Ajahmi was competing in Loew’s “Season’s Beatings” pro-am at Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Banquet Center.
In a Wednesday news conference, Loew maintained that no one was at fault for his death and defended the safety of his sport.
Even after Ajahmi’s death, Loew insisted there was no need to change the rules of the game to require boxers to wear headgear regardless of classification. Filer echoed that sentiment.
“No one is making you be a professional boxer,” Filer said. “You accept the consequences. Everybody knows what you signed up for.”
Filer said accepting the possibility of serious injury is one of the tenets he discusses with the boxers he trains. Anybody can be knocked out.
“Sometimes, you can be fit,” Filer said. “You can be in perfect shape and it can still happen.”
The Detroit Free Press reported Ajahmi grew up in Dearborn. In addition to boxing, he wanted to go into business.
“He was one of the most talented and respected people in the community,” Ajahmi’s cousin, Ibrahim Aljahim, told the newspaper. “His goal in life was to be the future Muhammad Ali. He loved boxing. From the age of 10, he was into boxing, he watched boxing. That was his main sport.”
Prior to Saturday night, Ajahmi competed as a Golden Gloves boxer in the 108-pound weight class and made the 2013 national team, according to the Metro Detroit Golden Gloves organization.