MOSCOW, November 22 (R-Sport) - Russian businessman and boxing aficionado Andrei Ryabinsky will foot some of the medical bills for Russian boxer Magomed Abdusalamov, who remains in a coma in a New York City clinic following a brutal 10-round defeat to Cuban fighter Mike Perez earlier this month, a promoter told R-Sport on Friday.
Property tycoon Ryabinsky, 40, is the vice president of the Russian Professional Boxing Federation and put up the $23.3 million purse for Wladimir Klitschko's title defense against Alexander Povetkin last month.
Since suffering a blood clot and being put into a coma after the fight, Abdusalamov's family has issued desperate appeals for financial assistance and is still accepting donations. The fighter's $40,000 payment for taking on Perez has already been eaten up by medical costs.
"Andrei Ryabinsky has taken the decision to cover a significant part of the funds that will be spent on Magomed Abdusalamov's treatment," said Vlad Hrunov, Russia's best-known boxing promoter.
Hrunov said he had contacted the clinic on Ryabinsky's behalf via Abdusalamov's promoter in the United States, Sampson Lewkowicz, but was told it was still too early to say how much was needed.
Abdusalamov, 32, was hospitalized after his November 2 bout at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He left the arena after being cleared by doctors from New York’s state athletic commission but had to be rushed to the emergency room, where a blood clot was discovered in his brain.
The clot was surgically removed, but Abdusalamov suffered a stroke after being placed in a medically induced coma.
One of his promoters, Boris Grinberg, told RIA Novosti that a doctor told him that when Abdusalamov was first brought into the hospital after the fight, he was “100 percent sure” he would die. Doctors have now told him that he has survived “100 percent,” Grinberg said.
It remains unclear how much brain damage Abdusalamov may have suffered.
The New York State Office of the Inspector General has launched an investigation into the state athletic commission’s handling of the fight. That probe followed complaints by Grinberg that the commission’s doctors should have sent Abdusalamov to hospital after the match rather than allowing him to leave the arena.
