Dale Evans 'feels responsible' for Mike Towell's death
Monday 3 October 2016 15:41, UK
Dale Evans says he feels responsible for the death of Mike Towell following their welterweight clash in Glasgow
Towell, 25, died in hospital on Friday night following a televised bout with Evans at St Andrew's Sporting Club event in Glasgow the previous day.
Tributes have flooded in following the death of the father from Dundee.
"I feel like I am responsible. I can't stop thinking about Mike and his poor family. All my thoughts are with them," Evans told the BBC. "It has been awful. All I can think of is his two-year-old kid and his girlfriend and family who won't have him around anymore.
"I feel like I am responsible because we are the ones punching each other - and this is something I have to live with now."
Towell left the ring on a stretcher after his fifth-round defeat to Evans and taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
He was diagnosed with severe bleeding and swelling to his brain, and died shortly after 11pm on Friday, 12 hours after being taken off life support.
Chloe Ross, the mother of Towell's son, Rocco, said he had been "complaining of headaches for the last few weeks".
The British Boxing Board of Control released a statement offering their condolences to Towell's family and indicated it intended to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.
"The British Boxing Board of Control are in the process of gathering information from all relevant parties in relation to the contest which took place on the September 29, 2016 and will advise of further action by the stewards of the board at a later date," the other statement read.
An appeal set up by former world champion boxer Ricky Hatton to raise money for Ms Ross, and the couple's young son, Rocco, has surpassed its £20,000 target and has now raised more than £29,000.
