In a New York State Supreme Court ruling Thursday, a judge granted Madison Square Garden its dismissal as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the family of Magomed Abdusalamov, who suffered severe brain damage from a bout at the Garden 17 months ago.
Abdusalamov's family filed suit last March against the five New York State Athletic Commission doctors, referee and inspector assigned to the Nov. 2, 2013, fight, and K2 Promotions, in addition to MSG, alleging recklessness, gross negligence and medical malpractice. MSG's release from the suit does not affect the other defendants' status.
Athletic commission doctors cleared the previously unbeaten Abdusalamov to leave the Garden on his own following his bloody 10-round unanimous defeat by Mike Perez. But after blood was found in his urine and he complained of headaches and was vomiting, the heavyweight from the Russian Republic of Dagestan was brought by taxi to a hospital, underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain, suffered multiple strokes and was left in a coma for weeks. He has not regained the ability to walk or talk and remains paralyzed on the right side.
Paul Edelstein, the Abdusalamov family's attorney, told "Outside the Lines" that "the main culprits have always been the physicians and they have always been the focus of the lawsuit, but we did feel that MSG, as the host, should bear some responsibility to ensure that boxers are kept safe."
An MSG spokesman declined comment Friday.
Undisputed in the case is that MSG complied with the state's boxing regulation that it provide an ambulance.
After deciding against making use of the ambulance that was at their disposal, commission doctors told Abdusalamov -- according to his handlers who were with him in the locker room -- that he could fly home to Florida and then go to a hospital within a week for removal of sutures they had just applied to repair a laceration above his eye and for X-rays of a possible facial fracture.
Commission documents obtained by "Outside The Lines" from that night's postfight examination confirm that the doctors suspected a "nasal fx" (the abbreviation for a fracture) and recommended "x-rays + removal of sutures [within] 7 days." One document served notice that Abdusalamov was immediately suspended from boxing for 60 days, with the form's boxes for "laceration" and "head trauma or facial injury" checked off as the reasons, with the recommended X-rays listed under "other."
In addition, the documents contain results of a postfight King-Devick test of neurological function that show a decrease in performance by Abdusalamov from his prefight testing. He made no errors in three prefight tests of rapid number naming, but had two errors on two of the three postfight tests, respectively, and took a couple of seconds longer to complete the postfight tests.
"I'm not sure that the King-Devick test is relevant," says longtime Connecticut ringside physician Anthony Alessi, who had no connection to the Abdusalamov bout. "That test is not an accepted practice, but perhaps they were trying something new."
Said Edelstein: "Are you telling me that these doctors performed an irrelevant neurological test and did not order the only one that is indisputably relevant, a CT [computed tomography] scan? Why did they do it?
"The poorer performance on the only neurological test administered, combined with the physical examination of 'Mago,'" added Edelstein, "indicated possible brain injury, and they didn't act on the results."
The five commission doctors from the fight haven't spoken publicly since then, and a commission spokesman said Thursday that none of them would be made available for comment due to the pending litigation.
Days after the nationally televised 2013 fight, the state of New York announced the start of an investigation. A spokesman for the state inspector general reiterated Friday that the probe is ongoing.
Now living with his wife and three young daughters in Connecticut, Abdusalamov recently returned home after a hospitalization to treat infections his wife said doctors had described as "life-threatening." With his 34th birthday less than four weeks away, the former title contender is now resuming a rehabilitation regimen, a family spokesman said. But as reported by "Outside the Lines," studies cited by the doctor who supervised Abdusalamov's postsurgical care indicate that the condition of patients is not expected to improve after the 18-month mark since such a brain injury.
While the full legacy of the Abdusalamov episode is far from clear yet, perhaps it has influenced the thinking of ringside doctors.
"This fight has changed me," Alessi said. "It has made us all a little more paranoid."