No boxer in their right mind should compete with an eye injury, especially against a doctor’s advice, because doing so endangers their life.
That is sound medical advice because severe blunt force trauma to a compromised eye risks conditions such as retinal detachment, lens dislocation, or internal bleeding, which can lead to permanent vision loss.
Stephanus Pypers has pulled out of a boxing match against Jarred “Mr Hollywood” Silverman on medical advice. Pypers, who is fondly known as “SD”, suffered an orbital blowout fracture during sparring a week ago.
The fight, which promised to be a tit-for-tat affair, based on their verbal barbs, was pencilled down by Aquila Boxing Promotion (ABP) for July 25 and was to take place at the Sandton Convention Centre.
But Silverman doesn’t buy Pypers’ reason for pulling out of the match and has instead accused his foe of being unprofessional.
Silverman told Sowetan: “Pypers was sparring with Kanie Fourie with 16-ounce gloves and a head guard. Imagine what I am going to do to him with 10-ounce gloves and no headguard. If you get hit like that in sparring by a lightweight, you must get another career.
“Cheese boys like this don’t understand how they set us back when they pull out of a fight. How am I going to get money to sustain me until September? This affects me, my family and my sponsors.”
Sowetan is in possession of a medical report from a qualified maxillofacial and oral surgeon who examined Pypers following his injury.
It reads: “The fighter has sustained a right-sided inferior orbital blowout fracture. This is a fracture of the thin bony floor of the orbit [eye socket] typically caused by blunt-force trauma to the face.
“Clinical and radiographic assessment confirms the fracture without significant displacement, entrapment of orbital contents, or acute vision-threatening complications.”
The report adds: “To allow proper bony healing and to prevent serious complications [such as orbital floor displacement, enophthalmos, diplopia, chronic sinus issues, or worsening of the fracture into a larger defect], Mr Pypers must refrain from any further facial trauma for a minimum of eight weeks from the date of injury.”
When contacted for a comment, Pypers calmly said: “I did full camp, and I was ready to fight. I put in the same amount of work, if not more than him, in cutting weight.
“I don’t know if he expected me to fight with a broken eye.
“Nothing has changed; we are still going to fight. It’s just that from a medical point of view, I won’t be cleared medically for June 25.”
The tournament will go ahead as planned by ABP for July 25, but the venue is now The Galleria in Sandton, which has been home to ABP promoter Geraldine Lerena.
Speaking on behalf of his wife, boxing promotion’s ambassador, Kevin “Two Guns” Lerena, said the following: “We want to make it absolutely clear that this is the only change [postponement of the Silverman-Pypers fight] to the event.
“The rest of the fight card remains unchanged, and the event will proceed as scheduled for July 25.”
He added that he would likely make his highly anticipated return to the cruiserweight division in an international fight either in September or October.
He reigned supreme as the IBO champ with six successful defences.
Lerena later held the WBC bridgerweight belt, which he lost in his second defence on May 30 to Ryad Merhy in Belgium.
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