Call it a Thanksgiving miracle.
Doctors said Magomed Abdusalamov, the Russian heavyweight who suffered life-changing brain damage in the ring in 2013, would be unable to express himself, have feelings or even hug his three daughters and wife for the rest of his life. But in an interview with ESPN’s Outside the Lines last week, the 38-year-old Abdusalamov was able to do exactly those things.
“I feel better,” Abdusalamov said. “I think six months from now I’ll be even better.”
Most medical experts believed Abdusalamov would remain in a vegetative state after his frightening beatdown at the hands of Mike Perez in November 2013 at Madison Square Garden, adding that he would not improve at all after the first 12 to 18 months of is recovery.
But Abdusalamov’s wife, Bakanay Abdusalamova, said that when doctors checked in on her husband three years later, “They were shocked. Like a miracle. They thought he’d always be in bed, maybe not even live three years.”
In his first public remarks about that fateful evening, Abdusalamov recalled how he was feeling in the locker room after the fight.
“I told (the doctors) I had pain in my head. I said I had a headache,” he said.
Abdusalamov suffered multiple strokes and ended up paralyzed on his right side. At the time, he could utter no more than a few grunts and whispers. Now he is able to form full sentences.
“My wife makes me very happy,” Abdusalamov said. “I love Baka. She gives me life.”
Abdusalamov and his family are currently applying for a visa that will allow them to stay in the country longterm.
The incident cast a harsh light on how the New York State Athletic Commission handled the postfight care of Abdusalamov. His family sued the State for medical malpractice and in 2017 received a $22 million settlement from New York State. More recently, the family settled with three ring doctors who worked the night Abdusalamov was injured.