Neither the health nor the career of ‘Venado’ López are at risk: Kiki Magaña

Luis Alberto Deer López was brutally knocked out by Angelo Leo last August when he was defending the featherweight world championship of the International Boxing Federation (IBF). A left hand crashed powerfully into the Mexican’s face; His head shook from the impact and when he fell he bounced limply on the canvas. Lying on his back and with his gaze lost, he seemed to be looking for something inexplicable in the lamps that illuminated the ring. After several seconds, he managed to react and stood up, something that some doctors avoid by protocol, and asked perturbed: Where are we? As if that blow had erased the 10 episodes of that tough fight at the Tingley Coliseum, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A few days later, Deer López published a short video recorded from his car in which he denied that he had any consequences, that it had only been the frightalthough he said that he had suffered a small hemorrhage in the brain. That statement unleashed versions that the Mexicali fighter had an injury that put the possibility of returning to the ring in doubt.

Neither the health nor the career of Venado López are at riskhis manager Enrique denied yesterday Kiki Magaña in conversation with The Day.

After the fight, tests were performed for possible minor bleeding, but no spill was ever detected, so an MRI was performed to rule out any sequelae.he added.

Return to training

The fighter has just returned to training, after a break of a couple of months, says Magaña, but he does not plan to return before February. That is, not before six months of that terrible impact.

When a knockout occurs, the commissions have protocols for the fighters’ return to activity. In Mexico City, for example, it is established that boxers must take a break of 30, 60 or 90 days depending on the severity of the concussion. Before fighting again, a series of evaluations must be completed to receive medical clearance. In cases like the one suffered Deer López, usually recommend a six-month break.

“He barely returns to the gym, but continues with medical surveillance. In order to fight again, Top Rank, the company that represents him, requires a series of rigorous studies to rule out any consequences and danger to the health of the player. Deer. We will do it too, we would never put one of our fighters at risk,” said Magaña.

The real risk – he recalled Kiki– on that night of the knockout Deer It was the refusal of the New Mexico Commission, which did not want to be responsible for the transfer to the hospital where they had to perform a series of tests.

After López reacted and was able to stand, representatives of the New Mexico Commission wanted him to go rest and insisted that he did not need to be taken to a hospital.

“They told us that he was fine, that he had already reacted and it was not necessary to check him in depth. But we complained to them, we held on to the fact that they had to do an MRI and other studies. They wanted us to leave, in order to avoid taking responsibility, because once you leave the arena, it is no longer a matter that involves the Commission, but we told them no and that Deer I would go to have it evaluated even if they objected,” Magaña said.

It is incredible that in the United States there are commissions that put boxers in danger in order to not be held responsible for an injury. Of course, not all of them are like that, but there are some because I have already had to fight so that they comply for the good of the fighter.

After months, Magaña spoke with Deer and asked him what he thought about his future, if he wanted to continue or if there was the possibility of retirement. But the Mexicali fighter stated that if the exams do not prevent him, he is convinced that he wants to continue his career in the ring.

That loss to Angelo disrupted all of López’s plans. If he won that fight they would look for the Japanese star, Naoya Inoue, today the undisputed super bantamweight champion. Even his handler claims that they asked him from those lands about such a possibility.

“Now everything is different, first we have to see the state of the Deeralthough everything indicates that it is very good. But he needs to prove himself again because after that defeat he doesn’t have much time; He is a 31-year-old fighter and at that age he should take advantage as soon as possible,” Magaña commented.

Deer López is a boxer who started late. In a career where promises begin to stand out in puberty or adolescence, the one from Mexicali started already in his twenties. If it is common for fighters to alternate difficult fights with some less complicated ones, for a mature athlete there is no time for speculation, the manager acknowledges.

He has a career in which he has received many blows, many wars as they say, but at this moment he has to take advantage to face the best rivals and win the best purses.point Kiki.

If his medical condition is in order, no one can deny him the right to continue as a boxer, even if he has been heavily punished in his career, the manager explained. Deer He left a very poor neighborhood, the Centinela neighborhood, in Mexicali, Baja California. An area with unpaved streets, plagued by marginalization and different forms of violence.

He is a warrior and he will not let himself be defeated so easily. He left there, from that neighborhood, and boxing changed his life; If nothing prevents him, he will not leave it, of that he is convinced.Magaña concluded.