Phil Lo Greco admits he fought Amir Khan while suffering from long-term concussion: ‘I was lucky not to end up in a coma’

Exclusive: The Canadian tells The Independent he remembers ‘absolutely zero’ from the fight or the training camp due to a concussion he had sustained the summer before

Phil Lo Greco admits he was ‘lucky not to end up in a coma’ after fighting Amir Khan while carrying the effects of a long-term concussion.

The Canadian was blown away in 38 seconds by Khan in April 2018 and insists he remembers “absolutely zero” from the bout or the training camp due to a concussion he had sustained while sparring ahead of his fight against Jesus Gurrola the summer before.

Despite the nine-month gap between facing Gurrola and Khan, Lo Greco says he remained “f****d up” going into his showdown with the Briton in Liverpool.

Lo Greco was given the all-clear for the Khan fight but admits the premature end to the bout was a blessing after witnessing Canada-based fighter Adonis Stevenson suffer a catastrophic brain injury in his gruelling knockout loss to Oleksandr Gvozdyk at the end of 2018.

“Why did I lose in 30 seconds? I was dumb to not move my head in the ring with a concussion. Luckily I didn’t end up in an induced coma that night because the fight ended so early,” Lo Greco told The Independent.

“You remember during the first press conference [for the Khan fight]? I was wearing sunglasses. Do you think I was wearing them to look cool? It was because the lights were bothering me and my mind was so mentally f****d up and confused that I don’t remember anything from that training camp.

“I got a concussion in the summer [2017]. But I didn’t know it when I was fighting in Niagara Falls [in June against Gurrola]. The symptoms got lost for a year because I didn’t know how to treat it, I was like, ‘what’s going on with my mind? I feel so confused and so f****d up. What’s going on with me?’”

Lo Greco was expected to easily knock out Gurrola when they met in Canada, but the fight lasted the eight-round distance and left him tired and drained.

Despite failing to shake the symptoms, he recognised the reward on offer against Khan and hoped the issue would pass. The attraction of subsequent paydays should he have beaten the high-profile British fighter, alongside Khan’s vulnerability after a near two-year lay-off following a knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez in 2016, made the fight appear more appealing.

“I couldn’t get to the bottom of it so I went to the hospital and saw the doctor in October or November of that year [2017],” Lo Greco adds. “He told me, ‘You have a concussion, you have to treat this’. Then I go ahead and taunt Amir Khan, not thinking I would get the fight. But I get the fight and I’m like, ‘f*** I spoke so much, what am I going to do, back out? People will think I’m a big mouth’.

“So when I was there, at the press conference, my mind was spinning, I was just praying to god during the training camp I would heal. I don’t remember nothing, absolutely zero.

“When they (the photographers) took the pictures I thought, ‘f***, they caught my eye’, but luckily nobody made a big fuss. Can you imagine the conditions I went into the fight that night? How dangerous and critical and dumb was it of myself to do that.”

Lo Greco’s revelation comes after Anthony Joshua’s trainer Rob McCracken admitted he “knew” the former world heavyweight champion was concussed in the third round of his knockout loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in June. The Team GB coach later denied any wrongdoing, insisting “it may be that concussed is not the right term to have used”.

But Lo Greco suspects some trainers may overlook warning signs depending on what is at stake.

“It depends on the type of fight that it was,” Lo Greco explains. “For me it was a winnable fight [vs Khan], I took a shot to take the fight.”