MONTREAL — A media investigation uncovering troubling new medical information about a Mexican boxer who died after a 2021 knockout in Montreal has prompted a Quebec coroner to revise his report into her death.
The investigation broadcast this week by Radio-Canada revealed that 18-year-old Jeanette Guadeloupe Zacarias Zapata should not have been declared fit for the bout in Montreal because of brain injuries sustained in a previous knockout.
Zacarias Zapata suffered a traumatic brain injury after being knocked out by Quebec boxer Marie-Pier Houle on Aug. 28, 2021, and she died five days later. In his initial 2023 report, coroner Jacques Ramsay found that Zacarias Zapata had not declared a likely concussion she suffered in Reynosa, Mexico, "against a much more experienced opponent" 15 weeks before the Montreal fight.
But Ramsay said in his new report published Friday that he did not know until Radio-Canada's investigation that some of the CT scans submitted to the Quebec agency that oversees boxing carried the signature of a Mexican doctor who doesn’t exist.
Ramsay says that when the Radio-Canada investigators contacted him in July they provided him with hospital scans he did not have access to when he wrote the initial report. The scans, taken after Zacarias Zapata’s knockout in Reynosa, showed the severity of her injuries.
As well, Ramsay says a report from an actual doctor in Zacarias Zapata's home city of Aguascalientes omitted critical information about her injuries after the knockout in Reynosa. The doctor's report "indicated that Mrs. Zacarias Zapata had no previous injury" or "pathological conditions that could require further examination," Ramsay says.
In an interview Friday, Ramsay said he doesn't understand why the doctor didn't mention her injuries, adding that the doctor was the same one who had seen CT scans showing the extent of her previous injuries and even ordered her to take 45 days of bed rest.
"Obviously, it was a serious condition then and I cannot explain why he didn't want to mention this on the on this medical report … This is where it all went wrong because if we had that information … then obviously we could have acted on this," he said.
Ramsay’s new report calls on the Quebec agency that oversees boxing in the province – Régie des alcools, de courses et des jeux – as well as boxing promoters to take measures to make boxing safer. The recommendations include requiring boxers who have suffered knockouts in a previous fight to provide post-fight medical reports; making sure all boxers who fight in Quebec undergo prior neurological tests in the province; and replacing pre-fight CT head scans with MRIs, which are more precise.
"Considering what happened, I think we can't rely on scans that are done elsewhere," he said.
The coroner also calls on the agency to refuse incomplete questionnaires, such as the one Zacarias Zapata submitted about her knockout history.
In an emailed statement the Régie des alcools, de courses et des jeux said it will analyze the recommendations, “which at first glance almost all require changes to regulations.” The agency said it was “stunned and angered” to find out about the fraudulent documents, adding that they had the letterhead of an existing medical clinic and were written in a way that was indistinguishable from other documents they receive.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2025.
Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press
