Ardi Ndembo Dies at 27; Boxer Had Been Placed in Coma After Team Combat League Fight

Ardi Ndembo, a heavyweight boxer who was put in an induced coma following a knockout loss in a Team Combat League fight, died Thursday at the age of 27, per Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post.

Ndembo was competing against Nestor Santana on April 5 in Miami when he suffered a knockout that left him unconscious in the ring for "several minutes." He was taken to a Miami hospital where a coma was induced, and he succumbed to the injuries three weeks later.

"We at Viva Promotions mourn the loss of Ardi Ndembo, a talented Congolese boxer who tragically passed away after a knockout in a Team Combat League match on April 5," the promotion said in a statement. "He remained in an induced coma until his untimely death. RIP Ardi Ndembo!"

Jeff Mayweather, the uncle of legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather, is a member of the Las Vegas Hustle team that Ndembo represented in the Team Combat League and was ringside for the fight against Santana.

"Boxing's a sport where you grow up watching it and loving it, but there's so much risk involved," Jeff Mayweather told SunSport. "Anyone can lose their life from boxing. When something like this happens, it wakes up the whole entire world. I don't think boxing's a bad sport because you can die in any sport. You drive a race car at 200mph, if it slides, you're going to die too. You can die in any sport but boxing is a brutal sport."

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman also paid his respect to Ndembo:

A GoFundMe page set up to support Ndembo's family has raised nearly $14,000 of this writing. The Team Combat League said it will match the total donations up to a maximum of $25,000.