Nationality American Division Heavyweight Name Jim Colombo Other names Dennis Alexio | Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Style Kickboxing Trained by Bert Rodriguez Draws 0 | |
Born James Colombo
November 1, 1968
North Miami, Florida, United States ( 1968-11-01 ) Weight 93 kg (205 lb; 14.6 st) Fighting out of North Miami, Florida, United States Died January 7, 2014, Coconut Creek, Florida, United States | ||
James "Jim" Colombo (November 1, 1968 – January 7, 2014) was an American kickboxer who competed in the heavyweight division. He was a highly touted full contact rules fighter from South Florida who fought and defeated a number of name contenders, before he suffered a severe brain injury which ended his career, and left him in a neurological vegetative state.
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Early life
Jim Colombo was raised in South Florida by his grandmother, Mary Novak, and graduated from North Miami High School in 1986. He worked as a biomedical technician at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami Florida.
Career
Colombo, a resident of North Miami, Florida, was a highly touted heavyweight prospect in kickboxing in the early 1990s. The 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Colombo was trained by Bert Rodriguez at the U.S. 1 Fitness Center and trained with welterweight Joe Marciano.
He posted an undefeated amateur kickboxing record of 30–0–0 before turning professional. As a professional, Colombo won his first twenty-four fights, including his biggest victory, a defeat over Larry Cureton in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1993 to claim the KICK United States Heavyweight Championship.
On April 16, 1993 at the Regal Riverfront Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, Colombo suffered his first defeat, an eleven round decision loss to Italy's Guisseppe Pallaramini. It was Colombo's first defeat after 54 straight victories (30–0 as an amateur, and 24–0 as a professional). The twenty-four-year-old Colombo collapsed five minutes before the decision was read and was reportedly unattended to for almost forty-five minutes. Doctors said that he had suffered a severe injury to his brain which had left him in a "neurological vegetative state" in which he was unable to walk, speak, or see.
Colombo had been scheduled to fight again on April 30, 1993, at the UCF Arena in Orlando, Florida against Donny Avery of Fort Lauderdale, Florida but never recovered from his injuries. His grandmother won a four million dollar lawsuit, but much of the money was used to care for Colombo since his injury.
Death
Colombo died at the age of 45 on January 7, 2014.