On Saturday night, September 17, 2005 Leavander Johnson entered the boxing ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to defend his first championship won in his 16-year career. Backed by his trainer/father, Leavander Johnson had been training for this fight his entire career. While he was prepared for the fight of his life, he didn’t realize that this Saturday night he would have to fight for his life after a traumatic brain injury.
The 35-year-old Atlantic City fighter collapsed in his dressing room with a subdural hematoma- a blood clot in the brain shortly after going eleven hard rounds with his opponent, Jesus Chavez. The fight began with his opponent racking up hard shots. With such an intense beginning, Chavez was thought to lack the power to complete the fight. According to HBO analyst Harold Lederman, Chavez came out ahead in every round of the fight. While Chavez seemed to be the superior fighter in this match, Johnson never went down.
In the middle of the fight, HBO announcer Jim Lampley unwittingly foreshadowed the tragic events to come when he mentioned that this was the type of fight in which someone gets hurt. In the tenth round, a neurologist who examined and spoke to Johnson said that he seemed okay. There was no evidence of a brain injury. Johnson never went down. He kept fighting even after twenty unanswered blows to the head in the eleventh round. Tony Weeks, the referee, then had an excuse to stop the fight. In the end, Johnson had landed only 148 punches to Chavez’s 409.
After collapsing in his dressing room, Leavander Johnson was rushed to a nearby Nevada hospital where he was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma, or bleeding of the brain. A CAT scan showed that the brain injury was so severe, and the blood clot so large, that it was shifting Johnson’s brain from the right to the left side of his head. Due to the severity of his brain injury, doctor’s promptly performed brain surgery. Of those who actually make it to the operating room after this type of brain injury, only one in four make it out alive. The fact that he came though this surgery is a testament to the swiftness and competence of the medical staff involved and just how grave serious brain injuries can be. While Johnson came through the surgery and held on for days with some improvement, he sadly passed away on Thursday afternoon.
One of the confounding elements of this boxer’s brain injury case- aside from the obvious tragedy- is that everything went by the book. Chavez did not break any rules during the fight. The officials were not negligent. There were expert medical professionals ringside and an ambulance waiting in the basement. There are no rules that could have been- or should be- revised to prevent such a tragedy in the future. It was a boxing match like any other- two men punching each other in the head before a crowd of paying spectators. Except this time one fighter lost his life.
This brain injury tragedy brings out the shadow of the boxing profession. In searching for answers amidst this anomaly, HBO’s Lampley says "Leavander Johnson [was] a poor kid from the roughest streets of one of America’s roughest cities. With boxing he saw Paris. He saw Rome. He won a world title. He made some money that will perhaps improve the lives of his for children." In an attempt at denouement Lampley continues, "So do we say that boxing dishonored or killed Leavander Johnson? Or do we say what was the greatest experience of [his] life ultimately came to an unfortunate end that he always knew was possible?"
