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Here is some new info on Golota's status and why he quit the fight.
If this is true, then maybe we ought cut him some slack...
It sure reminds me how hard Tyson must punch.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Heavyweight Andrew Golota, who quit against Mike Tyson after the second round of their fight early Saturday morning, suffered a concussion, a herniated disc in his neck and a fractured cheek bone, his doctor said on Sunday.
The extent of the injuries indicate that Golota was right to quit the bout, Dr. Wesley Yapor told reporters on a teleconference call from Chicago.
Golota, who refused to come out for the third round of the scheduled 10-round fight, was hospitalized on Saturday after complaining of headaches and nausea. He was still in the hospital on Sunday and was expected to stay there for a couple of days.
A spokesman for Golota's promoter, Main Events, originally said that Golota had bleeding on the brain and a fractured orbital bone. Yapor said the bone around the eye was not fractured and that two dark spots in an X-ray were determined to be scar tissue.
He also said that Golota, who had been knocked down with a strong punch in the first round of the fight in Auburn Hills, Michigan, had numbness in his left arm and left side.
Yapor said Golota has a herniated disc between the fourth and fifth vertebrae in his neck. Yapor said he would wait several weeks for tissue swelling to subside to determine if the Polish fighter needed surgery.
Yapor said the assumption is that he likely sustained the injuries in the first round of the bout. He added that a concussion can affect a person's ability to think and protect himself.
Golota also complained after the aborted fight of being head-butted by Tyson.
DID THE RIGHT THING
"I think Mr. Golota did the right thing (in quitting). There is no question he sustained head injuries from head blows," Yapor said. Golota "could have been paralyzed" had he continued, Yapor said.
Golota, a national hero in Poland and in Polish communities in America, was excoriated by fans and the media for quitting the fight when it did not initially appear that he had been severely injured. When he left the ring, fans jeered him and threw cups of beer on him as he walked through the aisles toward his dressing room.
The neurologist also said that when Golota checked into Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago on Saturday he told the emergency room doctor that he had double vision after Tyson had knocked him down in the first round.
"He said he had double vision and wasn't sure which image he should hit," said Yapor, adding that had he been ringside and knew then what he knows now he would have stopped the fight. "There is no way I would have allowed him to proceed in the second round," Yapor said.
But he made a point to say that he was not criticizing the ringside physician at the fight in Auburn Hills, a suburb of Detroit. He said that unless Golota had told the ringside physician of his symptoms there would be no way to suspect their extent.
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