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Eventually you have to stop fighting. Some get to leave boxing on their own terms. For others the end comes when they cannot help it, when they did not expect it and they do not want it. For Deion Jumah it was the latter.
He woke up and he could not see.
He was a couple of weeks out from what was going to be the fight his career needed. Jumah was due to box London rival Mikael Lawal for the British cruiserweight title, a key bout on a big
Training, and sparring in particular, had been going well. He had not noticed a particularly big punch land or anything that he thought might have caused an injury. But he found after training he could not see properly out of his left eye.
He wanted to believe he was just tired. Jumah rested in the afternoon, went for a run later and continued to hope. Late that night he woke up and could not see a thing. Then he went straight to hospital. Eight hours later he was in theatre for surgery on a detached retina. And like that boxing was done.
Jumah had been down this road before. He had previously detached a retina, had it operated on and undergone a long campaign to get his boxing licence restored and make a return to the sport.
"We jumped over and beyond to get my licence the first time. I think it was something that was quite a rarity in getting it, after a torn retina. I had a lot of help,"