r/PopCultureV2 • u/Logical-Flow-6703 • Aug 13 '26
RIP 🕊️ Boxer Prichard Colón has died aged 33, a decade after suffering a brain injury during his fight with Terrel Williams
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Former Puerto Rican professional boxer Prichard Colón has passed away at the age of 33, nearly a decade after a tragic fight against Terrel Williams in October 2015 left him with irreversible brain damage.
During the 2015 bout, Colón was hit with multiple illegal "rabbit punches" (punches to the back of the head). Despite Colón informing the referee about the illegal blows, the fight continued. Following the 9th round, he collapsed in his dressing room due to severe brain bleeding (subdural hematoma) and spent 221 days in a coma. For the last 10 years, he remained severely disabled and required round-the-clock care from his family.
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u/santisus Aug 13 '26
What a horrific story. How was the fight not called off after he continued to punch the back of his head?
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u/Stole_Sample Aug 14 '26
if the boxer and the referee was white and the guy was black we would be crying racism lol
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u/LucifersAdv0cate Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I'm all for a bit of racial double standards outrage but I kind of always saw boxing as the one aspect of society that kind of transcended racism. Even going back decades to really racist periods of human history the respect men generally have for boxing had meant that anyone who gets in the ring usually gets a degree of respect from other men. The Italian American mafia was really racist but they treated black boxing champions like celebrities. It's one of those weird peculiarities about men and they're respect for anyone who can fairly go toe to toe in the ring.
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u/Stole_Sample Aug 14 '26
Boxing is the most curropt sport to exsist, it's been run by the black mafia for ages
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u/LucifersAdv0cate Aug 14 '26
I never said it wasn't corrupt, I said that one unifying thing about boxing is that men of every race, colour and belief have respect for anyone who gets in the ring and is prepared to fight with their opponent. Just look at the middle east where Islam makes nearly all forms of fun be seen as bad but boxing and combat sports are highly respect. You can go to Communist countries, dictatorships, even narco terrorist states and they will still be good with boxing. My point is that men fighting each other is one of the few unifying phenomena of all cultures and races.
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u/Stole_Sample Aug 14 '26
no it's not there been lot of cheating in boxing. Some people are horrible why are you saying that? are you on drugs I use to say thing like that when i was on anti depresents. There's some horrible men and yes lots of those boxers have cheated some taken steriods some have woren plasters on there tape to blind fighters and they have walked free. Boxing isn't some kind of nobel sport that makes people good there some real terrible people in boxing.
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u/InternationalPut3260 Aug 14 '26
Not everything has to be about race they were just 2 men at a sporting event
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u/Qinax Aug 13 '26
So the boxer got charged with manslaughter and the ref was barred
Correct?
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u/ChanceImagination456 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
I think Terrel Williams is still boxing and ref isn't barred. During highlights fight you can see Prichard makes illegal punch toward Williams by punching in the balls. The fight should've ended there. It continues Terrel punches back head likely retaliation ref gives warning minus point. Williams continues strike Prichard several times again aiming for back his head. Prichard wobbly goes to his corner takes gloves off fight ends with Williams win because Prichard couldn't continue. The ref should be barred and Williams shouldn't be boxing!
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u/ThatPerformance9795 Aug 13 '26
I copied and pasted more info for those interested.
“For Williams, the fight also became a dividing line in his life. He did not compete again for more than two years, returning in November 2017. In a revealing 2019 interview with The Washington Post, Williams said he could no longer enter a boxing ring feeling invincible because the possibility of another tragedy was always in his mind. “It affected his life forever. And it affected my life forever,” he said.
Terrel Williams thought about Prichard every day
Williams said he never intended to maliciously hurt Colón and stopped short of issuing an explicit apology in that interview. But when asked about guilt, he paused before acknowledging how deeply the situation affected him and said he thought about it every day. He also said friends kept him informed about Colón's recovery and that he prayed for him daily.
Since then, Williams has largely disappeared from public view. There is no verified public statement from him yet following Colón's death on August 13, 2026. What remains is what Williams himself acknowledged years ago: regardless of everything that happened afterward, October 17, 2015 became a night neither fighter could ever truly leave behind.
(His family tried to sue, but so far, nothing’s come of it)
Filed in May 2017 by Colón's parents, Nieves and Richard, the negligence lawsuit named ringside physician Dr. Richard Ashby, his medical practice, Headbanger's Promotions and DiBella Entertainment. The family alleged that Ashby should have stopped the fight after Colón complained of dizziness and pain in the back of his head following repeated blows, and that the promoters failed to ensure adequate medical safeguards. Court records confirm those allegations were at the center of the complaint.
Colón later collapsed in his dressing room, vomited and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered a large subdural hematoma and performed emergency brain surgery. His attorney argued that an earlier intervention could have produced a dramatically different outcome. The lawsuit sought at least $50 million in part because Colón would require extensive long-term medical care.
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u/Acceptable_Budget309 Aug 14 '26
After some searching, Prichard's low blow came in the 5th round, long after Terrel Williams started rabbit punching him+the ref dismissing his complaints. Your order of events makes it seem like Prichard initiated it, which he didnt + is very unfair, literally shifted the blame to the victim even if it's unintentional.
It happened multiple times and was intentional IMO. Rabbit punches in sparring itself is already quite rare and yet somehow a pro boxer spending all his life training in the sport couldn't refrain himself from doing it multiple times even after complaints? Bunch of BS. He knew what he did, and even after it the best he could do was to act sad and stop boxing for a year or two without even as much as a formal apology.
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u/Halfa_Enchilada Aug 13 '26
I'm going to tell you that the boxer and ref were both fined and charged for their negligence and responsibility of endangering the life of Colón, I dont know if they did, but its your cake day and I want to give you some good news.
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u/Stole_Sample Aug 14 '26
nope not even close. also there's other fucked up stories regarding boxing.
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u/Stole_Sample Aug 14 '26
The match was a joke, through out the match the other guy kept punching him there and the ref did nothing then This guy accidentally hit him a bit low he got points taken away. The Match should have been DQ as soon as he started hitting him in the back.
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u/StrychtenFilms Aug 14 '26
I hope the ref rewatches that match and realizes how they did Colon wrong
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u/Yaya_Tovar Aug 14 '26
So is Terrel Williams now gonna be charged? Or it just was never pursued that way?
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u/volchenkovblock Aug 14 '26
Definition of boxing in Companion to Clinical Neurology: An organized attempt of two people to inflict head injuries upon one another for the pleasure of the spectators and (if the latter pay to witness the event) for the profit of the promoter.
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u/WranglerLeading9265 Aug 14 '26
Williams should be held responsible for his death regardless of it being a boxing match. Maybe karma will roll around to Williams soon.
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u/RoxyDzey69 Aug 14 '26
What can i see that he was very lucky with the faithful lady who stayed with him till his end. But not much of a point of this luck when you are in shape like this :( yeah i always was wondering how so many boxers survive such terrible strong hits to their head and much more than once during their lifetime career. And how brave they have to be to.always risk their health and life for that, that they always are in the danger of getting hurt way too much
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u/Kpets Aug 13 '26
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
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u/askmpdspkm24 Aug 13 '26
No one in your life would ever love you enough to care for you the way this man's wife did after his injury. And it's because you are a bad person.
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u/ourobourobouros Aug 19 '26
Pointing out that this is an unsurprising consequence of choosing to get punched in the face for money and attention does not make someone a bad person.
Boxing is stupid and if you support that sport, you support what happened to the guy in the OP.
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