Report: UFC vet Tim Hague in critical condition following KO loss in boxing match

Tim Hague (34), who featured for the UFC between 2009 and 2010, fought Adam Braidwood in a boxing match on Friday night at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The bout ended in the second round, after Hague was knocked out and sent crashing to the canvas.

On Saturday, reports surfaced that Hague had a suffered an extremely serious injury during the bout. MMA fighter, and friend of Hague, Cody Krahn relayed the news of Hague’s condition via Facebook (as first reported by James Lynch of FloCombat).

“As many of you know Tim suffered a severe knockout in his boxing match last night,” read Krahn’s statement. “Once we got Tim backstage and with the doctor we could tell he needed to go to the hospital.”

Fighter and friend Cody Krahn says UFC veteran and Canadian Tim Hague is currently in a coma & needed brain surgery. Keep the prayers coming pic.twitter.com/ox3nzRdMoQ

— James Lynch (@LynchOnSports) June 17, 2017

Krahn revealed that, at his time of writing, Hague was in a coma at Royal Alexandra Hospital – Edmonton, after surgery had been performed on a brain bleed that was causing pressure on Hague’s brain.

Later, Mike Russell of RealFightStories reported – after speaking with Hague’s teammates – that Hague had been declared ‘brain dead’. Russell followed up this news with a report that Hague was on life support, while his family was making arrangements for organ donations.

Tim Hague aka The Thrashing Machine was born in Boyle, Alberta. In his decade long MMA career he amassed a pro record of 21-13. He fought in the UFC’s heavyweight division on five occasions, debuting against Pat Barry at UFC 98. He won that fight by guillotine choke. Hague also fought Todd Duffee, Chris Tuchscherer, Joey Beltran, and Matt Mitrione in the UFC. After his tenure in the UFC, Hague fought in King of the Cage, World Series of Fighting, and a host of other regional promotions. His last MMA fight took place in July, 2016 in Sochi, Russia at Absolute Championship Berkut 41.

In boxing, Hague had a record of 1-3 (2 KO losses). His opponent on Friday night was a WBU champion with a 7-1 record (6 KO wins). Hague was knocked down three times in round 1, then suffered the KO in the ensuing round. Video of the full fight can be seen in the clip below. (Warning: Some may find this video disturbing)

Hague’s longtime training partner, Ryan Ford, told CBC News that the fight was an obvious mismatch.

“[Braidwood] fights full-time,” Ford told CBC News Saturday. “Where Tim Hague is a school teacher and does this part-time, and it shows in the ring.”

He said Hague was defending himself the entire fight — save for a few punches to Braidwood. “Right when I saw that, I was like, ‘this guy does not want to be in here,’ ” he said.

In 2016 a number of boxers suffered subdural/epidural hematomas (bleeding on the brain) during competition. In March, Nick Blackwell suffered a brain bleed after a doctor’s stoppage against Chris Eubank Jr. at Wembley Arena. After the fight he was rushed to hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. Backwell regained consciousness a week later. In September, Scotland’s Mike Towell died after being transported to hospital immediately after a fight in which he had lost via TKO. A month after that, German boxer Eduard Gutknecht collapsed in a locker room after losing a decision to George Groves in London. Gutknecht has remained in a coma ever since.