Patrick Day, Boxer Who Suffered Brain Injury in Bout, Dies at 27, Promoter Says

Conwell, who is 11-0 with eight knockouts, said in his Instagram post that he was overwhelmed with guilt.

“I never meant for this to happen to you,” Conwell wrote. “All I ever wanted to do was win. If I could take it all back I would — no one deserves for this to happen to them. I replay the fight over and over in my head thinking what if this never happened and why did it happen to you.”

Conwell continued, “I thought about quitting boxing but I know that’s not what you would want.”

Day was born on Aug. 9, 1992, and grew up in Freeport, N.Y., according to his profile on DiBella’s website. His boxing record was 17-4-1 with six knockouts, and he was an Olympic team alternate in 2012. In 2017, he won the W.B.C. Continental Americas Championship, which he followed up with the I.B.F. Intercontinental Championship in 2019, his biography said.

He was the youngest of four sons born to Haitian immigrants and started training on an Everlast punching bag in the garage of a neighbor, Joe Higgins, a retired New York City firefighter who lost a brother, Timothy, in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, according to an ESPN profile of Day.

Day was Higgins’s star pupil in the Freeport P.A.L., or Police Athletic League.

In the profile, Higgins, who had two throat surgeries and PTSD after responding to the World Trade Center site, credited Day with saving his life.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/sports/patrick-day-boxer-dead.html?emc=rss&partner=rss