Contreras Fight to Be Reviewed

Officials of the California State Athletic Commission will conduct an investigation of Saturday’s boxing match at Staples Center in which flyweight Ruben Contreras suffered a serious head injury.

Contreras, 32, was in stable condition Wednesday as he was being weaned off medication that put him in a medically induced coma, after 2 1/2 hours of surgery to remove a blood clot around his brain.

“As he has been weaned off he has shown no signs of deterioration,” said Katreena Salgado, spokeswoman for California Hospital Medical Center.

“So that’s an incremental improvement. But brain injuries are very unpredictable things.”

While maintaining there is no evidence of impropriety in the bout, which was stopped when Contreras quit fighting against Brian Viloria 55 seconds into the sixth round of a scheduled eight-round match, commission officials have asked Top Rank Boxing, promoters of the event, for a tape of the fight.

“We will look it over, round by round,’ said Dean Lohuis, who has been serving as executive director of the commission until the arrival Wednesday of his replacement, Armando Garcia.

“We are not saying there was any wrongdoing whatsoever, but you can’t let something like this go without an investigation. We will look at our procedures and see if there are any lessons to be learned.

“It’s like if there’s an air crash. You may be sure it was caused by mechanical problems, but that doesn’t mean you stop digging for more information.”

Said Chris Mears, commission chairman: “We have an overwhelming feeling of sadness something like this happened, but we also take pride in how the system worked. Once people were aware this was an emergency, as soon as the gravity of the situation was recognized, everyone, from our officials to the doctors to the paramedics, acted to give the fighter a chance to live. That’s a good thing.

“We want to take a look at the tape to make sure there wasn’t some subtle thing during the fight that could have been detected to stop it sooner. We will dissect that tape.”