Boxing surely is not a joke but a sports between life and death at any point in time. The boxing world mourns Indonesian Lightweight boxer Hero Tito who was hospitalized following a devastating uppercut that left the boxer in a coma.
Tito lost his last fight that resulted in the hospitalization on Sunday against James Mokoginta in Jakarta, Indonesia. Mokoginta landed an uppercut that dropped Tito, who then tried to get up before eventually falling unconscious. The 35 year old then fell into a coma and received intense medical care due to the cerebral hemorrhage, but passed away.
Tito, known officially as Heru Purwanto is a married and a father of two beautiful daughters, ages 13 and 5. He was pronounced dead at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday at Mitra Keluarga Kelapa Gading Hospital, according to the family. Tito has a professional record is 29-17-2 (11 knockouts) and was the favourite going into the fight that ended in his demise.
Tito turned professional in 2004 and fought all over the eastern hemisphere, traveling to Timor-Leste, Japan, Macau, Australia, Thailand, China, South Korea, Kazakhstan and India for fights. Among the names he fought are Ik Yang, whom he fought to a majority decision loss on the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios card in Macau, Will Tomlinson and Jamshidbek Najmitdinov.
A durable fighter, Tito had been stopped just six times in his career. He fought three times in 2021, pulling off an upset majority decision win over Hebi Marapu, an Indonesian boxer who entered with a 15-0 record, in April of 2021.
Tito had been extremely active since the previous decade, fighting five times in 2013 and 2014 each and six times in 2015. Tito was coming off a decision loss to Karthik Sathish Kumar in India last December, and was scheduled to fight Jacob Wyllie (5-0, 4 KOs) on March 12 in Australia.
Tito is the 31st Indonesian boxer to die in the ring, according to Indonesian news outlet VOI, and the first since 2013, when Tubagus Sakti died a day after suffering an eighth round stoppage to Ical Tobida in Jakarta.
Fare thee well champ. The world will always remember your contribution to boxing.
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