Boxer Prichard Colón has died at 33, a decade after a brain injury ended his career and changed everything.
The last time Colón had stepped on the ring was on October 2015, as a 23-year-old undefeated prospect. During the infamous fight with Terrel Williams in Fairfax, rabbit punches to the back of his head went unpunished, causing a subdural hematoma that sent him into a 10-year coma.
Prichard Colon dies aged 33 after decade-long battle
Colón died on August 13, 2026, exactly ten years after that fateful night in Virginia.
Back then, referee Joe Cooper had waved off his complaints about illegal rabbit punches to the back of his head, telling the young fighter to take care of it himself. Then, Williams knocked him down twice in the ninth round, and Colón’s corner mistakenly removed his gloves thinking the scheduled 10-rounder had ended.
He collapsed in the dressing room minutes later, vomited, and slipped into a coma that lasted 221 days. Doctors found a subdural hematoma measuring 1.5cm with 1.2cm of midline shift.
The Puerto Rican prospect had won his first 16 fights, 13 of which were earned by knockout. His mother, Nieves, then spent the next decade caring for him around the clock, feeding him through a tube and turning him every few hours to prevent bedsores.
Meanwhile, the WBC created the Prichard Colón Rule to crack down on rabbit punches, and the organization named him an honorary champion. Yet the $50 million lawsuit his parents filed against the ringside doctor and promoters remains unresolved to this day, so his family never got the closure they sought.
His story remains one of the darkest chapters in modern boxing, a sobering reminder that the risks fighters take are real and permanent. In late 2025, Jake Paul got his jaw broken by Anthony Joshua’s brutal KO.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
