BOXER Ardi Ndembo is still fighting for his life in a medically induced coma after a knockout defeat in the ring.
Father of two, Ndembo was competing in the Team Combat League when he was stopped in one round by Nestor Santana.
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TCL is a unique setup that has boxers in a squad area for one or two rounds with points earned in each and tallied to decide the winning team.
Ndembo was representing the Las Vegas Hustle when he was brutally knocked out by Miami Assassin’s Santana.
The Congolese heavyweight – who was 8-0 at the time – was unconscious for several minutes after the fight.
He was later taken to the hospital in Miami, where he now remains with his wife, who was flown from Las Vegas to Florida.
Floyd MayweatherJeff’s uncle, coach of the Las Vegas team, paid tribute to Ndembo, who has a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his family.
Jeff told SunSport: “Boxing is a sport you grow up watching and loving, but there are a lot of risks involved.
“Anyone can lose their life for boxing. When something like this happens, the whole world wakes up.
“I don’t think boxing is a bad sport because you can die in any sport.
“You drive a race car at 200 mph, if it slips, you will die too. You can die in a sport, but boxing is a brutal sport.”
Jeff – a former super featherweight champion – was in the fight and that prevented a brutal reminder of boxing’s brutality – even in just one round.
He said: “I was there. I didn’t think that would happen because this format is different from usual boxing.
“You only have one round, you’re only doing one round and I think almost anyone can survive one round.
“But in the Combat League heavyweight division, someone always gets hurt or stopped, so I want to say it’s the heavyweight division.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do to change that because it’s boxing and it’s only one round. A round of trying to do the best you can to win that round.
“It takes away the brutality that everyone thinks boxing is, but for someone to be knocked out or injured in one round is very rare. Especially something so tragic.
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