Boxer Dwight Ritchie dies after collapsing during sparring session with Michael Zerafa
Australian boxing is in shock after the sudden death of fighter Dwight Ritchie.
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Update: Australian boxing is in shock after the sudden death of fighter Dwight Ritchie.
The 27-year-old collapsed during sparring with Michael Zerafa in Melbourne on Saturday.
It’s understood Ritchie took a body shot, walked back to his corner and collapsed. He could not be revived.
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Ritchie was previously the Australian middleweight champion, and most recently fought Tim Tszyu, losing a decision that was only his second defeat in a 21-fight career.
Ritchie was in the midst of preparations for a fight against Tommy Browne on the undercard of Tszyu’s December 6 fight against Jack Brubaker in Sydney.
Prior to his fight against Tszyu, Ritchie revealed he’d battled cancer since birth.
A proud Aboriginal man, Ritchie was one of the true talents of this generation of Australian boxing.
Ritchie’s promoter Jake Ellis conformed the tragic news on Facebook, writing: “It is with great sadness and shock to announce that the fighting cowboy Dwight Ritchie sadly passed away today doing what he loved.
“As Dwight’s promoter and friend it’s unbearable to accept the tragic news that’s just surfaced.
“Dwight will always be remembered by the boxing fraternity as one of the brightest talents in Australia who’s fighting style embodied exactly how he lived.
“RIP Cowboy you’ll be forever missed”
In a column Ritchie penned for PlayersVoice in the lead up to his fight against Tszyu in which he explained how boxing saved him from a life of crime and incarceration.
“If I wasn’t a boxer I’d be in jail, 100 percent. The things I was getting up to as a kid…” Ritchie wrote back in August.
“We just had no direction and we were following that same cycle that was around us then, the same traps everyone else was getting caught in.
“I was lucky I found boxing, because without it there’s no doubt in my mind that I’d be locked up right now instead of in the gym preparing for a fight against Tim Tszyu, still working on my dream of a world title shot.
I can’t believe the news of Dwight Richie’s passing. RIP pic.twitter.com/Qs2IxhyeiU
— Billy The Kid (@BillyDib) November 9, 2019
“Boxing gives me structure, and routine. A bloke like me really needs structure in my life and something to work towards.”
Boxing promoter Will Tomlinson says he was deeply saddened by the loss and said Ritchie was a respected figure in the Australia boxing circuit and “really nice guy”.
“Dwight was a very smart, crafty, slippery and hard-to-hit type of boxer, that’s why this is shocking,” he said. “He’s the type of guy that doesn’t normally take punishment.
“It highlights the volatility of the sport. You’re one shot away from a disaster.”
An investigation into the exact circumstances surrounding Ritchie’s death has begun and Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
Just gutted to hear of the Passing of Boxer Dwight Ritchie in a sparring accident today!
— Renee Gartner (@renee_gartner) November 9, 2019
Thoughts with all his family and friends & all the boxing community!
Ritchie’s fighter profile on the Everlast Boxing website said he began boxing at the age of 12 after trying on a boxing glove when playing with his mates and quickly became hooked on the sport.
“Yeah it was all pretty innocent really,” Ritchie told Aus-Boxing.com in May, 2015. “Like most kids back then that were my age, you played footy of a Saturday with all your mates,”
“I think from memory I was around twelve or thirteen, and I went to a mates place in Shepparton and we were out the back messing around and I put a boxing glove on,”
“That was pretty much it for me – I was hooked – I then started training from that point on and began my career in the amateurs when I was fifteen,.”
Boxing is in Ritchie’s blood as his father Darcy also competed for Australian titles.
Ritchie turned professional in 2009 and won all four fights that year before going on to claim the Australian Middleweight Championship in 2014 and the OPBF Middleweight Title in Japan in 2016.
Team Ellis Boxing has set up a gofundme page to raise money for Ritchie’s three children.
Gofundme page for Dwight Ritchie’s children
Originally published as Boxer Dwight Ritchie dies after collapsing during sparring session with Michael Zerafa
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