Phil Lo Greco: ‘I could have died in the ring… I don’t want other boxers to make the same mistake’

[Ruthless-RKO]

Phil Lo Greco: ‘I could have died in the ring… I don’t want other boxers to make the same mistake’

Exclusive interview: Boxer opens up about hiding concussion, his mental scars and why he should never have stepped in a ring with Amir Khan

Phil Lo Greco is on a mission from God – and he’s already got the sunglasses to match.

When Eddie Hearn poked fun at Lo Greco for walking into a press conference in Liverpool last January wearing shades, the boxer brushed off the comment with a joke about a hangover and set about the business of winding up Amir Khan to promote their fight a few months later.

But this was no laughing matter. The reality was that Lo Greco’s long-term concussion was so serious that he could not tolerate the bright lights or stop his left eyeball from wandering stray.

The Canadian had already been hiding his symptoms for the best part of a year and was determined not to lose out on this fight, an opportunity to beat the returning Khan and put himself on the map.

“I was looking past him. I thought that he had been out for two years and if I beat him with a puncher’s chance, I could fight Kell Brook,” Lo Greco tells i in his first interview since surgery to repair a strabismus in his left eye – a lazy eye, in common parlance.

“I wasn’t able to make a healthy decision. I made an unprofessional decision and I took the Khan fight. In my blogs, I was talking openly about how great my training camps in Las Vegas were going.

“But it was literally just a weight-loss camp. I showed everyone how to lose 38 pounds in two months.”

When he got in the ring with Khan, Lo Greco lasted a second for every pound that he had lost in camp.

“I never saw it coming,” Lo Greco said of the shot that ended his night.

It’s a common phrase but in this case, he really means it. He had been battling concussion symptoms that were leaving him confused and crying after sparring, and feeling ‘mentally drunk’ most of the time.

“I went to the doctor and told him I was seeing blurry, feeling confused and having all these negative thoughts. I was extremely mentally tired and physically drained,” Lo Greco says.

“I said to myself: ‘Maybe I’m just overthinking’. But I was concussed. I couldn’t keep my thoughts together.”

The truth is Lo Greco should never have even sat down with Hearn – but it wasn’t the first time he had, he now realises, taken his life in his own hands by trying to fight through the condition.

The symptoms had first manifested themselves before his 31st professional fight, an eight-round win over Jesus Gurrola back in June 2017.

“I was lucky Khan ended it in 40 seconds because I could have lost my life that night. I could have died, and never seen my daughter,” Lo Greco reiterates, under no illusions about the risks he was taking.

“It could have happened against Gurrola but he was a journeyman and he wasn’t a puncher.”

Instead of being scared about losing his life, he was worried about the pay cheque.

Now, Lo Greco has been out of the ring for 18 months and has had surgery to repair the strabismus in his eye. He is even keen on a return to the ring, if medically cleared to do so.

Concussion in boxing became a global conversation in the wake of Anthony Joshua’s trainer Rob McCracken revealing he knew his fighter was concussed early on in his defeat to Andy Ruiz. Just a few weeks later, Patrick Day tragically died after injuries sustained in the ring.

Boxing was forced to look at itself and ask some searching questions. Lo Greco saw his opportunity to come clean.

“I would have been a coward not to address this, for myself and for future boxers,” he said.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I don’t remember a lot of stuff. I don’t remember the biggest fight of my life, the Khan fight, the camp leading up to it.

“But I feel there are a lot of fighters out there going into the ring with symptoms that they don’t want to talk about.”

Lo Greco’s honesty is refreshing, although he is careful not to apportion blame. This was his mistake, his deception and his choice. But he does not want other fighters to make the same mistake.

“God took me out of that ring in 30 seconds,” he says.

“But he said to me ‘here’s what you’re going to do in return – you’re going to speak about this openly so you can save a life or two’.”

However Lo Greco avoided a fate that he tempted more than once, he is alive to tell the tale. And he is not going to do it quietly.

[gregregegg]

Makes you question the pre fight medicals.

[oogiebe]

Another part of what's wrong with Boxing.

[turn2stone]

Sweet Jesus.

"He is even keen on a return to the ring, if medically cleared to do so."

[p4p1]

With more and more being learnt about head trauma and its effects, I as a fan sometimes struggle with my love for combat sports. I wonder with so many protocols being put in place for nearly every sport in the world in regards to concussion etc how much longer boxing can continue the way it is?

[jamesmcdonnell]

I think inevitably, Combat sports will be banned from mainstream coverage.

I

[Ruthless-RKO]

I think inevitably, Combat sports will be banned from mainstream coverage.

I

That's why it's more ppv now..

and facebook and youtube

[Enlightened-One]

Even though boxing is a dangerous sport and rules need to be in place to minimise the occurrence of life-changing injuries, there’s only so much the various authorities can do.

The fighters and their teams are ultimately responsible for their own actions.

Phil Lo Greco and his team wrongly decided to focus on weight loss rather than preparing properly during training camp.

Phil Lo Greco was a 33-year-old experienced pro that had previously shared the ring with several elite-level world-rated fighters when he fought Amir Khan.

Boxing is a sport whereby fighters get punched in the head repeatedly, they know their opponents are trying to hurt them.

Any fighter that decided not to train properly and enters the ring whilst being unfit, has to accept the potentially disastrous consequences of their wilful lack of preparation (or borderline negligence).

If an experienced fighter with a winning record is deemed as being medically safe to fight, without any obvious physical ailments, then they’ll be allowed to fight.

If Phil Lo Greco had informed the medical personnel employed by the BBBofC of his concussion, eyesight and weight loss issues, his fight against Amir Khan wouldn’t have been allowed to go ahead.

But he didn’t tell them and so he got KO'd.

There’s not much of a lesson to be learned here - get fat, don’t train, withhold information from the doctors and get KO’d!