Goodman immediately leaped into the ring to tend to the fighter. He said he was OK, didn't have a headache and wasn't dizzy.
"I'm just sad and disappointed," Leavander Johnson told the doctor.
In a way, he was lucky. If another half hour had been wasted getting Johnson into the operating room, he likely would have died, just as 75 percent or more of fighters with such injuries do.
But something is surely amiss. Four brain injuries in four months in one city is four too many. It's a wakeup call that blares at boxing regulators to try to find out why.
A good start might be brain scans before every fight, though promoters argue the cost would be exorbitant.
As it is, no one knows if Johnson came into the fight with a brain problem, just as no one knows whether he was injured by a punch in the first round or the punches that finally ended the fight.
"Maybe we can't find the answer, but it's something that has to be done and done very quickly," Goodman said.
It's too late for Leavander Johnson. All anyone can hope is that his brain responds when doctors wean him off the drugs that induced his coma in a few days.
But it's not too late for those who come after him.
Even in a hurt business, they deserve a little help.
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