Joseph George released from hospital after frightening undercard collapse

DETROIT – Light heavyweight Joseph George Jnr is apparently fine and out of the hospital after a scary collapse in his corner after the first round of his boxing match against Atif Oberlton on Sunday.

“He was released last night with no reported injuries,” Dmitriy Salita of Salita Promotions, which co-promoted the event, messaged BoxingScene on Monday. “Told by his coach that he gets real nervous before fights and this time did not eat all day.”

The fight had otherwise been uneventful in its first three minutes. At one point in the round, George was shoved or slipped to the ground and winced with one eye when he stood up, likely from a clash of heads that had preceded it.

When George went back to the blue corner after the bell, he sat on his stool and then, moments later, fell forward to the canvas and appeared to be unconscious, with medics quickly rushing to the ring to treat him.

George soon regained consciousness. As a medical backboard was brought to the ring, George was helped to his feet. A concerned Oberlton came to him, embraced George and gave him a kiss on the head. George was soon seated on a stool in his corner with ice on the back of his neck as medics examined him, and as a stretcher was being set up outside of the ring. 

The fight was ruled a technical knockout win for Oberlton, now 15-0 (13 KOs), while George, a 36-year-old from Houston, Texas, is now 13-2 (8 KOs).

“When my opponent was hurt, I said a prayer for him,” Oberlton said at the post-fight press conference. “I was just hoping he was OK, because I’ve never seen nothing like that before in my life in the sport of boxing. It was kind of crazy, and I don’t think he was faking anything. Especially once I seen him start to shake a little bit, I was really concerned for him. 

“We all want to go in there, we want to do what we want to do and impose our will on our opponents, but we always want to leave the same way you came in. You want to go back to your family in one piece. [...] I went over there and told him I love him. ‘If you want to run it back, whatever you want to do, it don’t matter, bro, but just I’m glad that you safe,’ and I gave him a hug.”

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.