Isaiah Abels, 21-year-old amateur MMA fighter, has suffered a cardiac arrest during an MMA match last Saturday (March 4).
Abels fought Saevon Canto. After scoring a second round takedown, he went into cardiac arrest.
His brother, Zach, posted what happened on Facebook:
Last night Isaiah Abels engaged in battle. It went two rounds. First round went to him with beautiful striking.
The fight transitioned into the second round. Isaiah continued to pick his shots and maintained his pace and distance.Unexpectedly he was countered with a lead hook. He responded with a takedown and continued to pressure his opponent against the fence to recover from the hook.
Isaiah then disengaged from the clinch and went to press forward. As he continued to pressure his opponent something ominous happened.Isaiah took a step forward and collapsed to his knees. He was going into respiratory arrest.
Soon after the fight was stopped. The ref had no idea what really happened thinking it was a typical stoppage.
However, it wasn’t a “typical stoppage”. Luckily, Abels was stabilized soon after:
Clearly it wasn’t. Isaiah wasn’t getting up because he was also going into cardiac arrest.
Once the doctors and medics accessed the situation. They got his heart going as they assisted his breathing.
We rushed to the hospital. A hour or so later Isaiah was stabilized.
