Tearful Eddie Hearn admits it’s ‘so hard to justify’ boxing after Patrick Day’s tragic death

EDDIE HEARN broke down in tears and said it’s ‘so hard to justify’ boxing after Patrick Day’s tragic death.

The American was rushed to hospital, suffering from a traumatic brain injury, after being brutally KOd by Charles Conwell in Chicago on Saturday.

But the super-welterweight died aged 27 on Wednesday after spending four days in a coma.

Day had been fighting on a show promoted by Hearn's Matcroom USA.

And Hearn told : “You can say it’s boxing but it is so hard to justify.

“It has been a rough year for the sport. We need to make sure we get together as a community, we keep trying to evolve, we keep trying to make the sport safer.

“There are so many things we can look at as a community, particularly [brain] scans.

“One of the issues is the frequency of scans in my opinion. You can have a yearly scan but sometimes it doesn't take into account the fights you have had since that scan."

Day's is the fourth death in boxing in recent months, following the passing of Russian Maxim Dadashev, Argentina's Hugo Santillan and Bulgaria's Boris Stanchov.

The former Olympian's fight with Conwell was one of the chief supports on the undercard of Matchroom promoted Oleksandr Usyk's heavyweight debut.

Day's death has hit his trainer Joe Higgins hard after he had joined the family in a bedside vigil for the stricken fighter.

For Higgins had credited the boxer for saving his own life after lifting him from depression having suffered ill health from being a firefighter at the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11.