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Musa Yamak: Unbeaten boxing champ with 8 KOs dies of heart attack during fight at 38

Yamak tried to come out for the third round of the bout, but collapsed on the ground and fell unconscious before he could enter the ring

German pugilist Musa Yamak shocked the entire boxing community after he died on Saturday, May 14, due to a heart attack, collapsing in the ring following a fight earlier in the day at a small tournament in Garching, Germany.

The Turkish-born German boxer, 38, was undefeated with a record of 8-0, including 8 KOs. Yamak tried to come out for the third round of the bout, but collapsed on the ground and fell unconscious before he could enter the ring. His opponent Ugandan veteran Hamza Wandera (20-19, 3 knockouts) was declared the winner. German and international media reported how Yamak wanted to continue fighting but was knocked unconscious and couldn't be revived. 

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The boxer was later pronounced dead in the hospital, with the reported cause of death being a myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack. “We lost our compatriot Musa Askan Yamak, a boxer from Alucra, who won European and Asian championships, at a young age after a heart attack,” Hasan Turan, a member of the National Assembly of Turkey, revealed on Twitter.

Yamak turned pro in 2017, but his career was majorly affected by the ongoing Covid pandemic. He won the WBFI title in his last fight in November 2021 after knocking out his Belarusian opponent Siarhei Huliakevich. That said, Yamak's demise is the second boxing death in 2022 following the death of Armenian-born Russian boxer Arrest Sahakyan on January 9. Sahakyan spent ten days in a coma before he was pronounced dead at the young age of 26.

Marca reported how teen boxer Rashed Al-Swaisat died last year at the age of 19 after collapsing in the boxing ring during a World Youth Championship bout. Al-Swaisat was rushed to hospital after suffering a knockout defeat on December 26 and underwent emergency brain surgery but lost his life ten days later.

MEAWW previously reported how Nathan Valencia, a promising student athlete in Las Vegas, succumbed to injuries he sustained at a boxing match that was part of a fraternity's amateur 'fight night'. Valencia, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, was facing a member of another campus frat in the "main event" of an annual boxing bout on November 19. Proceeds for the event were supposed to go to Center Ring Boxing, a youth boxing club in Las Vegas.

Valencia went toe to toe with the other student boxer for the charity fundraiser held at the Sahara Events Center in Las Vegas, but just minutes after stepping out of the ring, he suddenly collapsed and was rushed to hospital. The athlete eventually succumbed to his injuries and passed away on November 23, just days before his birthday on November 27, and his organs were donated to eight different people. The kinesiology student's loved ones had begged him to back out of the match, but he reportedly insisted he was doing it for a good cause.