Woman kickboxer dies after being knocked unconscious during championship fight
By Paul Thompson
A woman kickboxer has died after being felled by a left hook to the face during an amateur tournament in Florida.
Adrienne Simmons, 34, was knocked out in the final round of a three-round bout in Orlando on Sunday.
The fight was stopped and ringside doctors treated Miss Simmons, who sat up and spoke to paramedics as she was helped to the dressing room.
But the Atlanta-based fighter collapsed soon after and was eventually airlifted to hospital where she died on Monday.
She is thought to be the first women kickboxer to die following a fight.
Simmons' boyfriend yesterday claimed tournament organisers, International Kickboxing Federation, had failed to provide adequate medical facilities.
Chike Lindsay-Ajudua said there was no ambulance immediately available and it took almost 60 minutes to get Simmons to Orlando Medical Centre.
He told Atlanta's 11Alive.com: 'It took over half an hour after the incident for her to even be loaded onto a gurney for transport.
'Transportation took another 20 minutes, which gave over an hour of time for the swelling of her brain to get to a point where there was little that doctors could do.
'The severity of this accident is a direct result of the proper precautions not being taken by the IKF.'
Simmons had been fighting Lindsay Scheer in a Muay Thai match, when she was knocked out.
The Thai form of kick-boxing allows fighters use feet, elbows, hands and knees to rain blows on their opponents although women have to wear headguards.
Miss Simmons had emergency surgery to relieve swelling on the brain but never recovered consciousness.
Her death has been ruled an accident by the Orange County coroner.
Speaking about the fatal blow, her trainer Eric Haycraft said: 'It really just seemed like a normal bout.
'It was a heavy shot but everyone involved had no reason to believe there was anything abnormal except a fighter getting their bell rung like we all have had at some point in our careers.'
On her Facebook page, Ms Scheer described her opponent as 'brave', and wrote that part of herself had died along with Ms Simmons.
'I have been inconsolable since that moment,' she wrote. 'I did not know what it really felt like to cry. I was and am broken.'
Steve Fossom, the president of the International Kickboxing Federation, could not be reached for comment.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1298619/Kickboxer-Adrienne-Simmons-killed-left-hook-championship-fight.html##ixzz0v5uDY8Ri
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