From a world title fight to never boxing again: David Light opens up on blood clot battle, surviving stroke

Kiwi boxer David Light: 'When I really realised I was never going to box again it hit me pretty big.' Photo / Dean Purcell

Just three-and-a-half months ago, David Light was at the peak of his boxing powers. Today, his career is over as he fights a battle of a different kind. Speaking publicly for the first-time since having surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, Light tells Clay Wilson about his life-changing ordeal, his days in the ring being done and finding perspective and positivity in what the future holds.

David Light’s eyes light up, as he lifts the lid on a nondescript box.

A wide smile becomes wider as he looks up at coach Isaac Peach and pulls out a glistening gold belt. The shiny new strap is for the WBO Global title, arriving seven months after Light won it by upsetting American Brandon Glanton in Florida, earning a shot at the organisation’s top prize in the process.

The arrival of the belt is a pleasant surprise, and a reminder of the heights he had reached just a few months prior. Light had earned a world title shot against British star Lawrence Okolie, before his world changed in an instant.

As he sits down with the Herald at the Peach Boxing gym in west Auckland, 10 weeks have passed since Light was in surgery. In hospital, a tube was inserted at his groin and slid all the way up his body to the back of his brain to remove a blood clot; this procedure caused a mild stroke.

“When it first happened, it was really hard,” Light says. “From just having had a world title fight to being in a hospital bed and not being able to move much was a big shock to my whole system.”

Light is expected to make a full recovery. He is up and about and well on his way. But the blood clot surgery, and ensuing stroke, has left him relearning to use his entire right side.

Everyday tasks like brushing his teeth and drinking are still easier with his left hand. Light jokes his memory is “even worse than it was”, but he hasn’t forgotten how immediate the telltale signs of a blood clot were in the aftermath of his points-decision loss to undefeated champion Okolie in late March.

“I felt it pretty much as soon as I got back [to the hotel] that night. I couldn’t remember when I got home. I was sleeping a lot.

“I got better but then I did the flight. I got back to New Zealand and I just slept for probably more than a week, and I couldn’t remember getting home or anything.”

It didn’t go unnoticed by Peach. “Once he got home and he’d come to the gym a few times, I thought something was wrong. I had a gut feeling.”

A CT scan on Light’s first visit to hospital revealed nothing untoward, leading to a diagnosis of delayed concussion. But all was not well.

“I was walking around the hospital after that and I forgot where I was going,” he says. “I got lost. The person who dropped me off, I couldn’t find them.”

The memory struggles and intense fatigue continued until, 12 days later, the situation ramped up even further. After hearing banging on walls, Light’s flatmate found him outside at 2am holding his head and in serious pain.

An ambulance ride back to hospital led to more scans, doctors eventually finding the clot after running dye through the blood in his brain. The surgery was a success, but the next few days were tough, and not just on Light.

Kiwi boxer David Light with his trainer Isaac Peach at Peach Boxing Gym in West Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell.

“It was terrible,” Peach says. “Quite shocking. It was hard because his teammates all had big fights that week. I had Mea [Motu], Jerome [Pampellone] and Russian [Andrei Mikhailovich] all fighting at Fight for Life.

“I didn’t want them to see him before their fights because he was in a really bad way, but it was one of the worst weeks of my life.”

And it was a week that marked the end of Light’s lifelong dream at the age of just 31.

“It took a while,” says Light. “But when I really realised I was never going to box again it hit me pretty big. You think your life is going one direction, then all of a sudden it takes a big right turn.”

But as he sees it, anyway, not a turn for the worst.

“Oh man, when you’ve been in the stroke ward and you see what some people have gone through, it’ll give you a different perspective.

“Mine was a minor stroke, so it made me realise it could’ve been a lot worse and I’m pretty lucky.

“When you’re a professional athlete, you have to stop when you’re young, but then you’ve got another 40-50 years to live.

“I dunno, sometimes I think about fights or the fight game, but it’s just part of life. Now I just have to look at the next thing, there’s no point in looking back. Boxing was going to end. Now it has ended and the decision was made for me. I’m glad I didn’t have to decide, I guess.”

“I don’t think you pick your thing in life. I see it as you being picked.”

David Light

For Peach, and the rest of his teammates and friends from the gym, Light’s positive attitude has made it easier. But the gym’s founder and head coach admits he’s still coming to terms with everything that’s transpired.

“David comes to the gym, he’s happy here, but as a coach it’s been hard. You feel guilty and there’s a lot of shit emotions that go with it.

“You’re responsible for your fighters, so you go through a whole lot of self-blame and thinking about ways you could have done things differently. They come and go, but I know it’s natural so I’m OK with it. I accept that you can’t go back and change anything, and I don’t know if I would.”

Part of Peach’s reasoning for that is the thorough, and mandatory, brain scans and checks Light had in Manchester prior to the fight with Okolie.

Scans and checks he passed, along with several more once back in New Zealand that didn’t reveal anything serious.

“You go for your everyday MRI, you’re not finding it,” Peach says. “In a perfect world, yeah sweet, let’s have one every week, but it doesn’t work like that.

“David’s situation is really hard because it’s so close to home, but I’ve been in boxing over 20 years and this is the first time for us having an incident like this.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Light, who’s only message to other fighters is to always make health their No 1 priority.

“If I could box all over again, I’d probably still do it, knowing what can happen.

“Everything can kill you. There’s other sports where people have been horribly injured. Driving around can kill you, more people die from that than plane crashes.

“You can’t be afraid of life, you’ve just got to do what you can. I’ve got to get better now and I can still be part of the team.”

For now, that’s just in a support role for his world-title holding and contending teammates, but coaching is also on Light’s radar. Just try and keep him away from this humble yet high-achieving little gym in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges.

“I don’t think you pick your thing in life. Maybe if I got to pick my thing it would be different, but I see it as you being picked.

“I feel like boxing is definitely part of my life so I’ll be here and however I can help, I definitely will.”

David Light: 'If I could box all over again, I’d probably still do it.' Photo / Dean Purcell

Whatever that ends up looking like, Peach is confident Light will continue to be a success – a bright future ahead, with a lasting legacy already laid down.

“It’s kind of sad, because David and I started this Peach Boxing thing in a sense.

“He was my guy that put us on the map. We tackled the world, he took all the risks for us to learn the way to go about getting the others there, too.

“For us to get to that world title fight, it’s ridiculous. We didn’t have the know-how or anything.

“His boxing career will always be a happy thing, and once he’s better, it’s going to make for one hell of a story.”

For a boxer with a Commonwealth Games silver medal, a professional record of 20 wins and just one loss, and a world title challenge on the other side of the planet – you get the feeling it already is.

Clay Wilson is Sport News Director for Newstalk ZB, and has been a sports journalist since 2010. Being ringside in the middle of Millenium Stadium for a boxing world title fight, as 80,000 Brits belted out Sweet Caroline, is a moment he’ll find hard to top.