Tim Hague’s opponent Adam Braidwood talks – ‘I Knew in the Ring’
We learned of the unfortunate news of former UFC fighter Tim Hague’s passing over the weekend, and the man who delivered the fatal blows, speaks with media for the first time.
Hague was competing against Adam Braidwood in a boxing match in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Friday night. Hague was knocked out, brutally bounced his head off the canvas, and transported to a hospital where he was later declared brain dead on Sunday.
The 33-year-old Hague was a 10-year MMA veteran prior to trying his hand at boxing.
“It’s not a good thing for anyone involved. I want to keep the focus on Tim and his family,” Braidwood told CTV News.
“Especially his son, they’re the real like victims here,” said Braidwood. “Everyone keeps saying this about me, but just keep it about them the best that you can because I can deal with that, I’m still alive.”
“You never know in boxing. Visas, this and that, and Tim’s brave, so he stepped up and said he would fight me,” said Braidwood. “We talked beforehand and we were going to make it a really good fight. That’s what we wanted. I know he was training hard and I’ve got the utmost respect for Tim.”
When asked when he knew Hague had passed away, Braidwood said:
“I knew man.
“I knew in the ring. I saw the way he fell, man. Everybody talks about my little celebration and I’ve gotten comments before that I didn’t celebrate or hype up or this or that. I waited on my knees for Tim to move after I did my stupid little celebration. I don’t care about that, people can say whatever they want. I waited on my knees, I watched him, he moved, I picked him up because his team was struggling to pick him up. I carried him to the corner and I could see in his face and like…”
When fans and media question his antics or why the fight continued:
“What do they know? They don’t fight,” Braidwood argued. “He wanted to keep fighting. Journalists, this, that, people who write stuff, like, they don’t know what they’re talking about. What kind of country club lifestyle do they live? Where they get to call the shots, like what we do in there. It gets hyped up. You watch these movies, you watch TV, this and that, it’s serious business. Now you’ve got all these fake coaches running around and they don’t care about anybody. They need to leave their comments off. Tim wanted to keep fighting and that’s what we do. If people have delusions about what this sport, about what life is really like for someone like me who has nothing else, then they can walk in my shoes and see what it’s like. I would have done the same thing and he would have done the same thing to me. Trust me.”
“I was in the ring. I was there. I’ll be honest with you, I was like it’s time to stop this fight. I was hoping Tim would stop it himself and if he doesn’t then I was like we have to finish it until it’s done. And it’s nobody’s fault. It’s not the refs fault. The ref asked and if you’re conscious and you’re collected and you have your stuff together, I saw the video, Tim was still there and he said he wanted to keep fighting, so that’s what happens. And that’s just the truth man. There’s no speculation about it. He wanted to keep fighting, so we kept fighting.”
A GoFundMe has been set up for Tim Hague’s Memorial Services
