Get the Top, Local stories delivered to your inbox! Click here to join the daily Vernon Matters newsletter.
In this July 17, 2019 photo, old boxing gloves lay on the floor of a boxing gym in the Villa El Salvador shantytown in Lima, Peru. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Man dies after collapsing at Winnipeg charity boxing event, investigation underway

Sep 29, 2025 | 12:40 PM

WINNIPEG — A man has died after suffering what appears to have been a medical emergency during a charity boxing match in Winnipeg.

Boxing Canada, the governing body of Olympic-style boxing, says Robert Boyko, a man in his 50s who was in his first-ever competition, collapsed during the third and final round.

The group’s executive director, Christopher Lindsay, says a ringside doctor attended to Boyko, but Boyko appears to have had a cardiac event and was taken to hospital.

Lindsay says boxers at his group’s sanctioned events undergo annual medical exams and are screened by a doctor before each event.

He also says a ringside doctor can halt the match if they feel a fighter is in trouble.

Winnipeg police say they are not investigating the death, while Lindsay says Boxing Canada will do a review to see whether any protocols might need improvement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2025

The Canadian Press