BoxRec

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A local boxer’s friends and family say he passed away Monday, after collapsing during a match Saturday night.

Steven Copeland, 28, competed in the Golden Gloves tournament at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton over the weekend. According to his trainer, Roger Blech, Copeland won his match Friday night and the two laughed and joked before his Saturday match against a boxer with less experience.

“Looked like he was going to win this one,” Belch said. “If he was taking punishment, I would’ve stopped the fight.”

Belch described what happened as the match progressed: Copeland took a knee and signaled he needed to stop. He got up and walked unsteadily over to Belch in his corner, where he began vomiting and laid down.

Belch said doctors stepped in right away, and first responders rushed Copeland to a local hospital. Doctors performed surgery to relieve swelling on Copeland’s brain that night, but he did not come out of a coma, according to his aunt, Patricia Hannas.

Family members told WAVY News Copeland passed away Monday night. They said he was an organ donor and his passing would help others who are fighting for life.


Belch said Copeland would have no regrets. “I believe that Steven was where he wanted to be, if something happened to him. In that ring, that’s his home.”

In the waiting room at the hospital, at least 25 people stood together, waiting to see Copeland before he drew his last breath. That support extended through the tournament, where Belch said everything stopped when he walked in the next day.

“They all started praying for that young man, and it brought me to my knees, seeing how much people cared,” Blech said.

Hannas said the family’s concern extends to the man who was fighting Copeland when he went down.

“It is a dangerous sport, but it’s also a sport that people do because they love it and they are passionate,” she said. “We have support for the person he was boxing and just have sympathy for him, as well, that we hope he’s okay, as well.”

Copeland’s friends and family set up two online funds to help with his medical expenses:

http://www.gofundme.com/e340nw

sucracristo wrote:definitely sad to hear anyone passing young. i would definitely like to learn
more about what happened when the time comes to report that stuff. his coach
said he wasn't getting hit very much and that pic actually shows lots of kickboxing
titles, so i wonder what else he was doing besides boxing leading up to this.
he had the boxing match the day before and was he doing anything else?
obviously taking a few punches precipitated his emergency condition, but
i'd like to know more before blaming this 100% on boxing.

He received a blow to the back of the head at a bad time, went back to his corner and started vomiting, went unconscious, then went n into full cardiac arrest. they transported him to the nearest hospital where they did emergency brain surgery for massive blood clotting in his brain, and took a piece of his skull off for brain swelling. He currently has no brain activity and the docs said even with a miracle he would just be a non responsive vegetable for the rest of his life.