Last night, it was not at all an uncommon reaction for someone to laugh at the fight between Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000; hell, even the athletic commission representatives at ringside were. The fighters quickly gassed (wIth Kimbo somehow blowing himself up while controlling Dada in mount) and the fight turned into an utter embarrassment. Eventually, Dada went down in cartoonish fashion, seemingly due to exhaustion more than anything else, and Kimbo won. There was concern when Dada had to be stretchered out of the cage, but that subsided as it became more clear that he “just” lost due to exhaustion since he didn’t appear to sustain much in the way of traumatic blows to the head.
That changed this afternoon when Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter tweeted this:
BREAKING: Multiple sources confirm Dhafir Harris was in critical condition overnight. His heart stopped and he was placed on a ventilator.
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) February 20, 2016
This was quickly followed up by a statement from the family of Dada (real name Dhafir Harris), where this was the extent of the medical information:
The doctors have now informed us that Dada had accumulated extremely high levels of potassium in his blood which led to severe dehydration, fatigue and renal failure. The high potassium levels were likely caused by his 40lbs weight loss in preparation for the fight.
Thanks to the EMTs and doctors, Dada is now recovering nicely.
There were already a lot of questions about Texas’s athletic commission going into Bellator 149, and there are a lot more after. At first, it was bad enough, with not only Dada vs. Kimbo and Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock being booked, but everyone learning Gracie could wear a gi if he wanted to (he didn’t) because it was never removed from their allowed apparel list. Then Gracie was allowed not to wrap his hands. Now it appears that a fighter was in such bad physical condition that just trying to fight nearly killed him. Something needs to be done; whatever is up with that commission is not funny anymore.
