Mexican boxer Jeanette Guadeloupe Zacarias Zapata, who died a few days after being knocked out. by Quebecer Marie-Pier Houle during a fight presented in August 2021 in Montreal, did not declare having suffered a concussion before her fateful duel, reported the Coroner’s Office in its report published Tuesday.
Zacarias Zapata, who was only 18 years old at the time of her death on September 2, 2021 – almost five days after her fight – died of craniocerebral trauma following blows to the head, it was possible. read in the report.
“Although the objective in boxing is to send the opponent to the floor and “knock” him, this death remains accidental. This was an unintentional violent death,” Dr. Jacques Ramsay said in the document.
The coroner, however, underlined that Zacarias Zapata had fought a six-round fight on May 15, 2021 in Mexico, i.e. 15 weeks before fighting his sixth and final professional fight on Quebec soil, “against a much more experienced opponent with a record of 8 -0-0”.
During the last round of this fight, visibly exhausted, Zacarias Zapata was then dominated by an opponent in much better condition who delivered several solid blows to her head until she clung to the cables and dropped to one knee on the ground. . The referee then decides to stop the fight.
“Mme Zacarias Zapata can only hold on thanks to the cables and ends up falling to the ground where she remains lying, the report notes. The video does not invalidate anything else. However, during the statement by the boxer’s father who was present during this fight, he confirmed that his daughter had indeed fainted. However, he attributed the cause to a lack of oxygen.
“Unlike the Montreal gala, there are no medical personnel on site during this fight,” we continue. The father said he went to the hospital with his daughter. She would have been discharged the same evening, some two hours later. A medical check-up the following week would have shown nothing abnormal. A recovery was apparently concluded without significant post-concussion syndrome. »
According to her father, we read in the report, she only resumed boxing training in mid-July and did not complain of anything other than being a little sore.
“This is information that is difficult to validate,” we specify.
The Dr Ramsay mentions in passing that “in the self-questionnaire that the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) makes athletes fill out before their fight, Zacarias Zapata answers in the negative to all the questions, including the question if she has ever had a concussion, head injury, or loss of consciousness. This therefore means that she does not consider that her knockout. in May like a concussion.”
“After watching the videos of the fight of May 15 and that of August 28, 2021, it appears to me that the KO. suffered on May 15 is a knockout. cerebral. As for the August 28 fight, it is a TK-O. also cerebral,” he says in his report.
Thus, Dr. Ramsay recalled that before authorizing fights between professional athletes, the RACJ systematically requires boxers or other combat sports fighters who have suffered a knockout. in their previous fight, a complete description of the event, including the production of the video if it exists, as well as the report of the post-fight medical examination, so that the organization can better appreciate the nature of the injuries suffered by the boxer and thus better fulfill its mission which is to ensure the safety of the boxer.
“Ultimately, the promoter must understand that this responsibility is shared, because the approval of his fight card by the RACJ will depend on compliance with these requirements,” we add.
Dr. Ramsay also recommends that in the event that there has indeed been a knockout. cerebral, the RACJ requires boxers or other fighters to produce a neuropsychology report, which should take into consideration previous tests if they exist.
“Again, and particularly for international athletes, the responsibility of the promoter will be to ensure that this requirement is properly transmitted to the athlete if he wants his fight card to be approved,” we recall.
Finally, Dr. Ramsay recommends that when issuing a professional boxer or professional combat sports athlete’s license in Quebec, the RACJ requires neuropsychology tests from boxers or other fighters which may possibly be serve as a comparison with subsequent tests if the athlete is the victim of a knockout. or KO. brain technique.
Quebec promoter Yvon Michel joined a few hundred members of the small Mexican community of Puertecito de la Virgen, north of Aguascalientes, where Zacarias Zapata lived, to pay him a last tribute before his burial, on September 18, 2021 The president of GYM, who organized the Montreal gala which led to the death of the young woman, then specified that his group had decided to assume all costs related to the funeral, including the transport of the body from Canada.