The Boxing World Mourns the Passing of Patrick Day

Patrick Day passed away today, Oct. 16, 2019, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, succumbing to a traumatic brain injury incurred in his bout last Saturday with Charles Conwell. Day was felled by a devastating left hook in the 10^th round and hit his head on the canvas as he fell. He was taken from the ring on a gurney and died without regaining consciousness. A former New York City Golden Gloves champion and 2012 U.S. Olympic team alternate, Day, 27, had been on the deck twice previously during the fight, but had good moments during the middle rounds.

New Jersey boxing writer Ryan Songalia, who has followed Day since his amateur days, called him one of the true gentlemen of the sport. Dozens of others weighed in on social media with the same sentiment when they heard that Day had been hospitalized, including Long Island’s Chris Algieri, the former WBO junior welterweight champion who had likewise known Day since his amateur days. “One of the true nice guys in the sport who stood out as a consummate gentleman warrior,” wrote Algieri. In the words of British promoter Eddie Hearn, Patrick Day had a smile that could light up a room.

One of the most poignant social media posts was written by Charles Conwell. “If I could take it all back, I would,” said Conwell. “I can’t stop thinking about it myself. I prayed for you so many times and shed so many tears because I couldn’t even imagine how my family and friends would feel. I see you everywhere you go and all I hear is wonderful things about you.”

Conwell indicated that he was thinking of quitting boxing. Joe Higgins, Patrick Day’s coach and mentor, responded: “As devastated as we are, we realize you are equally devastated…Thank you for your kind words…(Patrick) would have wanted you to continue.”

Patrick Day was born and raised in Freeport, New York, a community on the South Shore of Long Island. He recalled that he was 14 years old when he first hit a heavy bag. The bag was in Joe Higgins’ garage. Day came in the open door uninvited and a great friendship was born.

Aside from Day’s immediate family, no one is more devastated than Higgins who ran the boxing program for Freeport’s Police Athletic League. Higgins remembers being there when Day’s Haitian-American parents brought him home from the hospital. The Higgins and the Days live across the street from each other in one of the nicer sections of the community. (Day’s father is a physician; his mother has worked as a translator at the United Nations. Patrick Day attended Nassau County Community College and earned a Bachelor’s Degree online in Health, Wellness, and Nutrition from Kaplan University.)

A second-generation New York City firefighter who lost a brother in 9/11, Joe Higgins spent months digging through the rubble of the World Trade Center and developed severe respiratory problems, forcing an early retirement. The boxing gym was his refuge and he believed firmly that the kids he was teaching would grow up to be better citizens because of the life lessons they learned there. (ESPN reporter Mark Kriegel, speaking to Higgins as Patrick Day lay in a coma, was told by a distraught Higgins that he had commanded his assistants to padlock the gym and have the locks changed and that he could never bring himself to go back there again.)

Ring deaths have become all too common lately. In July, fights on back-to-back nights produced ring fatalities.

Maxim Dadashev died from injuries suffered in his bout with Subriel Matias on July 19 at the MGM National Harbor Casino and Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Dadashev’s corner pulled him out after the 11^th round, but it was too late even though Dadashev protested the stoppage. The fighter collapsed as he was leaving the ring and died on July 23 without regaining consciousness.

Argentine boxer Hugo Santillan and Uruguay’s Eduardo Abreu fought to a 10-round draw in Buenos Aires on July 20. Santillan passed out as the scorecards were being tallied and fell into a coma with a brain injury. He died five days later.

On September 21, Boris Stanchov, a 21-year-old boxer fighting under an assumed name, suffered a sudden and fatal heart attack following the fifth round of a 6-round contest in Qazim Dervishi, Albania. This was Stanchov’s sixth documented pro fight. He had lost the previous five.

There’s a certain irony in the fact that Patrick Day was from Freeport. On Feb. 20 of last year, the town of Freeport, Illinois, held a day to honor native son Gerald McClellan who suffered permanent brain damage in a fight with Nigel Benn in London in February of 1995.

Freeport, New York, and Freeport, Illinois are approximately 800 miles apart, but now they are linked with something other than the name that they share.

“You’ll never hear my guys spit out curse words or embarrass their mothers, but don’t mistake their kindness for weakness because they’ll knock the snot out of you,” Joe Higgins told Yahoo combat sports writer Kevin Iole for a story that ran four years ago this month.

By all accounts, Patrick Day didn’t need boxing to turn him into a gentleman. It was always in his DNA, instilled there by his parents. May he rest in peace.

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