Boxing: Junior Fa’s ‘catastrophic blood loss’ revealed after loss to Joseph Parker

On a night when he announced his presence on the world heavyweight scene by coming face to face with Joseph Parker, Junior Fa’s manager revealed the staggering blood loss he suffered and led to the biggest fight of his career. .

While worrying a frustrated Parker on several fronts, Fa had mixed emotions following his unanimous decision loss, the first of his 20 professional fights, after the judges scored 117-111, 115-113 and a disconcerting 119-109 against he. .

“I should have done it, I should have done it, I could have done it. I accept it, I keep going, I have made myself known to the world. I exposed Joseph,” Fa said, attributing the defeat to Parker who surpassed him in the numerous rivets he had. ruined the contest.

“I know when he was progressing in the professional career, people would put him there. Deep down, I always knew I have his number, but he played it better.”

Fa insists that he would love to face Parker anytime, anywhere, but believes the former WBO champion now doesn’t want to be part of another national double. Given the stagnant nature of the show, whether anyone would want to see a rematch is another matter.

“I think they will avoid me at all costs. I exposed a lot of their weaknesses. I showed my level. I am eager to fight him at any time, but we will let things go the way they choose. I am eager to come back and give him another boxing lesson. “.

Two months ago, the Parker-Fa showdown was postponed due to an undisclosed health issue that required Fa, the 6-1 loser, to undergo immediate surgery.

Before the fight, the Fa camp refused to detail the exact injury for fear of undermining the promotion, but it is understood that the problem was due to severe bleeding.

At the post-fight press conference, Fa manager Mark Keddell revealed the scale of the 31-year-old’s recovery after he lost seven bags of blood in that December incident.

“We are very proud of him for what he has accomplished by literally losing half of his blood since he had that injury. It was catastrophic blood loss,” Keddell said.

“We qualified to give him blood transfusions because his blood was so low. To be able to get his hemoglobin levels back from 88 to 150 in this many weeks is incredible.

“We are proud of the journey and the adversity he has overcome.”

After such a procedure, Fa’s team focused on improving their mental strength and strategy during their eight-week training camp.

“We knew we wouldn’t have oxygen-carrying red blood cells to work, but we put a team around them,” Keddell said.

“It’s heartbreaking when you lose a fight like that, so we’re pretty off, but we can’t wait to fight him again, and we can’t wait to fight someone good again.”

Fa tried to ignore any lingering effects of her illness; Instead, he highlighted elements that he significantly improved, such as his composure after walking into the ring to the beat of Bobby McFerrin’s song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” his autistic son’s favorite tune.

“There is no point worrying about things you can’t change. It happened, I felt better, I worked on things that will help me differently. Things were as good as they can be, so I worked on my mental focus a lot,” Fa said. .

“Look at the entrance again, you’ll see me happy. That’s a different me compared to the other fights I’ve had when I came in very tense and nervous. This time I felt great. People were talking about the pressure coming in the ring – no seemed depressed. “

Where to go is a difficult prospect for the now 19-1 Fa.

This performance demonstrated his ability to challenge elite heavyweights and his heart after overcoming a nasty ninth-round cut over his right eye, but stylistically Fa’s appeal may be limited.

Fa’s deft move to be a great man makes him difficult to pin down, and while he hit Parker with several great right hands, his 50 percent knockout percentage is also hard to sell.

“I’ve always been confident in my boxing ability. I’m not sure what has been done to his confidence; I think it might have brought his team down a bit. I put it out there quite a bit. I showed that world boxing is really here.” – We are very good at boxing.

“I showed a little talent for the guys that are not seen.”

Fa’s coach, City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman, believes the experience will be invaluable as they seek to plan more engaging fights in a challenging world consumed by a pandemic.

“That’s Junior’s first chance to fight someone who had a world title not too long ago and to see where he stands against a guy of that caliber who represents the pinnacle of where we need to be skill-wise,” Bareman said.

“There were times in that fight where Junior stood his ground and it was amazing, but he didn’t do enough. He can improve that. It’s definitely a loss, but you can get some positives out of it.”