SYDNEY — Senior Queensland medical officials have called for a ban on boxing in Australia following a local fighter's death after losing a title fight over the weekend. Braydon Smith, 23, had congratulated Filipino John Moralde for claiming a unanimous points decision win in their WBC Asian Boxing Council continental featherweight title bout in Toowoomba Saturday but collapsed after returning to his dressing room. The law student was put into an induced coma but never regained consciousness and his life support was turned off at a Brisbane hospital Monday. Australian Medical Association Queensland president Shaun Rudd said the fighter's death showed why boxing should be banned nationally. “We believe that a so-called sport where two people knock each other in the head as often as you possibly can to win a bout seems rather barbaric,” he told ABC Monday. — Reuters
