Fatality inquiry into Alberta boxer Tim Hague’s knockout death recommends better oversight

The judge leading a fatality inquiry into the knockout death of a boxer is recommending changes to how the sport is regulated and how head injuries are monitored.

Tim Hague, who was 34, competed in a boxing match licensed by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission on June 16, 2017 when his opponent, former Edmonton CFL player Adam Braidwood, knocked him unconscious.

Hague came to and was able to walk to the dressing room inside the Shaw Conference Centre (now the Edmonton Convention Centre), where he vomited, and was then taken to the Royal Alex Hospital. Doctors there determined he’d suffered a hemorrhage on the left side of his brain.

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Hague underwent surgery for a large brain bleed, but his condition did not improve and half of his brain died. Care was withdrawn and Hague passed away two days after the fight.

Justice Carrie Sharpe with Alberta’s provincial court made 14 recommendations, including that combat sports be overseen by a provincial authority instead of a patchwork of municipal bodies and that there be concussion spotters at every event.

She also recommends that if a fighter receives a blow to the head in a technical knockout, they must provide a brain scan to prove they are fit to compete again.

— More to come…

— With files from Emily Mertz, Global News