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This has to be the worst summer for boxing that I can recall over my lifetime. This is getting brutal. It feels like we're talking about death more than we are fights.
Colombian slugger Nicolas Cervera committed suicide at the age of 37 on Saturday. He reportedly was dealing with several personal issues, including some problems with his marriage. Cervera wasn't really much more than a domestic-level fighter, but he did step up as an opponent for Jermain Taylor back in 2003, in Taylor's 16th professional fight. The future middleweight champ stopped him in the fourth. Cervera returned at super middleweight in 2005, and a then-unbeaten Librado Andrade put him away in the third round. That was Cervera's final fight.
His boxing career ended with a record of 35-5-1, with 32 wins by knockout. He beat pretty much all tomato cans.
Cervera joins the distressingly long list of fighters or former fighters who have passed away this summer, which includes Arturo Gatti, Vernon Forrest, Alexis Arguello and Marco Antonio Nazareth. I truly hope this is the last one we have to talk about for a while.
Rest in peace, Nicolas.