Connor Coghill: Hull boxer facing six-month recovery after career-ending injury

  • Connor Coghill speaks to sports reporter. Arif Ahmed

A boxer has spoken of his "heartbreak" after his career was ended by a brain injury in his first ever professional defeat.

Featherweight Connor Coghill, 27, said he was initially "fine" after being stopped by Leeds fighter Hopey Price at Sheffield Arena last month.

But he went to hospital after suffering constant headaches and was told he had suffered a bleed on the brain.

"I was heartbroken," he said. "It was the fact I'd never fight again that instantly hit me.

"I couldn't believe it, I was in shock. As soon as they told me I had a bleed on the brain - I assumed it was just concussion - I just broke down in the room.

"I was crying, my girlfriend was crying, I knew my career was over and then it was a question of whether I'd walk out of the hospital. It was scary."

Coghill, from Hull, was undefeated in his previous 14 fights before he suffered a 12th-round stoppage in his 15th bout against Price.

He said: "It was only a couple of days later I started to get a headache.

Coghill, right, said he doesn't blame Hopey Price for what happened. Credit: PA

"I went to Hull Fair - the loud noises, the flashing lights, that didn't help. I'd booked a weekend with my family in Blackpool. I was playing on the games with my kids and that's when it got really bad.

"I was suffering that badly, the next day that I went to A and E in Blackpool and that's when I found out."

Coghill spent a week in hospital and was told he would need six months to recover.

A fundraiser set up by his manager, Stefy Bull, has raised more than £6,000 to support him during that period.

Bull said: "Boxing has been his life and all he’s known since being a young boy. With his fighting career now taken away I think and believe Connor can still make a life out of doing something he loves."

Coghill, who hopes to set up his own boxing gym, said he has no resentment towards Price.

He said: "There's no blame from me. I don't think there's anyone to blame, it's just a freak accident. It's two men fighting and one got the better of the other. It's boxing, that's what happens.

"Everyone knows the dangers of the sport."